Co-Chairs SDG OWG new text out 15 become 17 again

The co-chairs have released their draft for the final SDG OWG. The 15 has reopened to 17 but we have seen some reframing of the goals. They stand now as:

List of Proposed Sustainable Development Goals to be attained by 2030

1.     End poverty everywhere

2.     End hunger, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

3.     Attain healthy lives for all

4.     Provide quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all

5.     Attain gender equality, empower women and girls everywhere

6.     Ensure availability and sustainable use of water and sanitation for all

7.     Ensure sustainable energy for all

8.     Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

9.     Promote sustainable infrastructure and industrialization and foster innovation

10.Reduce inequality within and between countries

11.Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable

12.Promote sustainable consumption and production patterns

13.Tackle climate change and its impacts

14.Conserve and promote sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources

15.Protect and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, halt desertification, land degradation and biodiversity loss

16. Achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all, and effective and capable institutions

17.Strengthen the means of implementation and the global partnership for sustainable development

So the phase of the SDG OWGs is nearly over. The co-chairs Ambassador Mr. Macharia Kamau Permanent Representative Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kenya and Mr. Csaba Kőrösi Permanent Representative Permanent Mission of Hungary have delivered the text for the final negotiations session.

The new text has reframed some of the goal statements. In particular food security is no longer part of goal 2. In education goal 4 the word inclusive has been taken out.. There has been a reframing of the water goal 6 around securing water and sanitation for all. Goal 9 has brought industrialization and infrastructure together. The human settlement goal11 as it has taken out the word ‘build’ and replaced with ‘make’. Goal 13 has become ‘tackle climate change and its impacts’ and not ‘promote action’. The oceans goal 14 is more forceful not ‘conserve’ but ‘attain’ while the biodiversity goal 15 has been weakened from ‘protect’ and ‘restore’ to protect and promote.

In the targets there has been also some consolidation from the last draft down from 223 to 147.

The chairs have merged some And then also taken out others where there was controversy.

At a quick glance the most obvious targets that have gone are those on peaceful societies.  Gone are the ones on SRHR in the health goal 3 and sex education in the education goal  4 has gone. Also gone is the reference to Land in particular in goal one we no long have “by 2030 ensure development opportunities for all men and women, including  secure rights to own land, property and other productive resources, and access to financial services, with particular focus on the poor, the most marginalized and people in vulnerable situations.”

How the co-chairs will deal with these any other controversial areas its unknown. They may put them back as an annex saying there was no agreement is these areas as they attempt to find a text that does have general agreement. Expect some fireworks!!!

On the positive side the key targets on the Human Settlement goal 11 are all there and it’s looking like a very good goal and set of targets.

On goal 16 ‘Achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all, and effective and capable institutions’ earlier in the year this goal looked dead in the water with opposition coming from all major developing countries and Russia. But as the SDG OWGs continued it became clear the problem was on the peaceful society’s side which those governments felt should NOT be included. This became very clear at the last SDG OWG with the comments by Brazil and others. This goal now stands a chance to survive it has lost references to the media and some of the financial issues but the latter is dealt with within the International Experts Committee on Sustainable Development Finance and so it may not be replayed here.

On the IECSDF many of the governments inside and outside the Committee I spoke to at the last SDG OWG are so unhappy with the push by the developed countries development ministries to push the old Monterrey issues that some even have suggested there might need to be a ‘minority report’. If they go down that path there are some really good people out there who can give them advice on sustainable development finance which is what this committee should have been looking at.

Putting MOI under each goal now enables a proper discussion on what is missing from MOI under those goals. It makes the narrative much clearer. Very pleased to see the structure of  goal 17 now very close to the 2002 South African non paper.

As we approach the final meeting there is a need to solidify the words we need a find and replace function to find ‘promote’ and replace with ‘ensure’ throughout the document.

To end with I would like to share a table I did for the book ‘How to Lobby at 

Intergovernmental Meetings – Mine is a Café Latte’ that came out in 2004 and still worth getting a copy. J

Term	Definition	Just the term - no action identified	Does it say who should do it?	Does it have timelines?	Does it have a monitoring mechanism?
Affirming	We are quite serious about this.
Calls for	We are asking governments what they might consider doing.
Calls upon	This is for someone else to do something.
Concurrence	We don’t have to decide anything, because some other body already did.
Considering	We are not at all serious about this.
Consultation	We don’t want to do anything about this at the moment.
Cooperation	The more people we involve the less will happen.
Coordination	It is a mess out there and unless we get people together nothing is going to happen.
Decides	This is action! Someone – usually not governments – should do something.
Develops	We suggest that someone does something sometime in the future.
Endorse	We think someone should do something we said they should have done before.
Encourage	We hope someone is going to do something sometime.
Enhancing	We hope that these suggestions might make a difference in someone doing something.
Establishing	Look, we can create something that might do something that we can’t do at the moment.
Expressing concern	We are really annoyed that something we asked for hasn’t been done.
Facilitate	We really need someone to help us.
Implementation	Time to try and do what we said we would do.
Maintain	We should at least do what we have been doing.
Notes	This means it doesn’t matter too much.
Observance	Lets just watch.
Promotes	We’re pleased that someone else will do it.
Provisional	We don’t know if this is the right direction or not.
Reaffirming	We still haven’t done what we said we would do.
Recalling	We said we would do something and we still haven’t done it.
Recognising	This means we know there is a problem which we haven’t yet addressed and probably don’t have the money or political will to do so.
Regulation	We are REALLY serious this time.
Requests	We are asking someone who we have no right be asking to do something they probably will not do.
Restructuring	It a mess out there and if we don’t hit some heads together nothing will happen.
Revitalisation	It’s not working so we need to kick someone.
Revision	We made a mistake and lets be honest about it.
Supports	We agree this is a problem and should be addressed – hopefully by someone else.
Strengthens	What we said before still hasn’t happened and we need to give moral support if nothing else to support to the Agency or Programme that has to deal with the mess.
Stresses	We really do think this is important and hope someone will listen.
Taking into consideration	No one is going to do anything.
Urges	We think it is important and someone should do something.
Warmly	We are thanking someone for doing something.
Welcome	Someone is doing something somewhere.