Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

A couple of years ago I reviewed the excellent report by the Canadian Government’s foresight organization’s Meta-scan 2 Report. I am a huge admirer of the work done by the Policy Horizons Canada the foresight organization. I had missed that they have now brought out their Meta-scan 3 Report. The web site has some excellent videos which: “enable the reader to examine or build their own mental model of these technologies.” I would make this report a must read for any person engaged in policy development in any area. We are at the edge of huge changes in so many different areas which will impact on employment and our way of life and most people are unaware of what is coming. What has been a real problem for many people is the rate of change compared to the past and our ability to absorb those changes in our everyday lives. This is only going to increase as we move forward.   What Meta-scan 3 report does is identify what some of the most likely disruptive technologies...

Over the last twenty years or so I have seen a number of attempts to engage stakeholders in the negotiations at the UN. These include: Public, stakeholder or civil society hearings (they are often called different things) Speaking slots at intergovernmental negotiation sessions Participation in Round table (where there is a round table with stakeholders participating eg UNEP GC or High Level events with Heads of State) Presentation as an expert on a panel Stakeholder Dialogues with member states (UN Commission on Sustainable Development 1998-2002) Of these the last three are the ones which have had the biggest impact and the first two the least impact. There is a very good review of this done by Stakeholder Forum from around 2009 that is worth reading . Probably one of the best examples of impact was the stakeholder dialogues from the 1999 CSD where for 12 hours, yes I did say 12 hours,  there was an exchange between stakeholders and governments facilitated by...

There is less than 250 days left for governments to agree to what Heads of State will agree to at the end of September. This has been a long road from the time that Colombia, Guatemala and Peru raised the idea of the SDGs in July 2011 to where we find ourselves today.   STOCKTAKING SESSION The first session of the Post 2015 process – the Stocktaking Session - with the two Co-Facilitators   of   the   negotiations,   Ambassador David    Donoghue,    Permanent   Representative   of   Ireland   to   the   UN,   and   Ambassador   Macharia  Kamau,   Permanent  Representative  of  Kenya - was held from 19-21 st of January 2015. In December the UNGA agreed to the timetable to remind us what this is all about: Declaration (17-20 February) Sustainable Development Goals ( 23-27 March) Means of Impl...

Monday is the first day of the next phase on the SDGs, it all started in July 2011 in Solo Indonesia when Paula Caballero from Colombia supported by Guatemala and Peru suggested that we should have agreed some Sustainable Development Goals. That suggestion has gone through many iterations to the point where at the beginning of 2015 we find ourselves with 17 Goals and 169 targets, The big question is will this change? I don't think so. For those stakeholders just joining the discussion who may have amazing ideas - well you are too late. One of the great lessons that I have learnt from being around intergovernmental meetings for the last twenty years is be there at the beginning.  Probably the most influential input that stakeholders made from the UN DPI NGO Conference in Bonn to the SDGs was two months after the meeting in Solo when they came up with 17 SDGs. The paper became the main reference document for government discussions in the coming months. It covered 70% of what be...

              ​ ​ SAVE THE DATE 'Making your voice heard: How to influence the post-2015 development agenda' 6-8pm, Monday 19 January Room 27/26 UN Secretariat Building, ​New York Beyond2015 ,  SD2015   and the   Tellus Institute  invite you to participate in this practical training to help you and your organisation engage successfully in the post-2015 agenda over this coming year.  Find out the latest information and updates on post-2015 processes and learn how to effectively influence governments and other key decision makers to make sure we bring about the world we want by 2030​. Please register your interest to participate in this training session as soon as possible  as there is limited room capacity and participation will be confirmed on a first come, first serve basis. To register you nee...