Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

27 February, 2015 10:00 am -1:00pm ECOSOC Chamber Multi-stakeholder Partnerships: Making them work for the Post-2015 development agenda Multi-stakeholder partnerships will play a key role in the implementation of the new development agenda beyond 2015. The engagement of civil society, business, philanthropy, academia and others will be vital for advancing the deliverability of resources and enhancing the effectiveness of current and future development efforts.   As we transition from the MDGs to the SDGs, it is important to consider how multi-stakeholder partnerships could best support the new development agenda as well as the type of sustainable framework and platform for reviewing progress that will be required.   This special half day event will discuss ways in which multi-stakeholder partnerships could best be aligned to the goals and targets of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the types of modalities required f...

What was very interesting about the last session of the post 2015 negotiations is that there seemed to be a convergence of views on what the main elements of  The Declaration might be. This will make it easier for the co-facilitators to produce a zero draft by June. Of course there were disagreements over issues such as common but differentiated responsibility and how to phrase human rights and I am sure when the text comes out a few more things. There was some very thoughtful comments by countries such as Panama on how to structure the document and again surprisingly there was much more support for the secretary generals six themes being part of The Declaration with possibly enabling paragraphs which would help in the media side of promoting the outcome. These are to just remind everyone: People: to ensure healthy lives, knowledge, and the inclusion of women and children Dignity: to end poverty and fight inequality Planet: to protect our ecosystems for all societies and our ...

As it is becoming clear that the sustainable development goals and targets are not going to change - maybe a little technical proofing - but otherwise what was agreed last August will stand. The next big issue for many groups is what will the indicators for the targets be and how will they be decided? For work on the indicators stakeholders now have to become knowledgeable of the workings of the UN Statistical Commission. A Commission that has 24 members made up of national statistical offices in the member countries. My understanding last year only one stakeholder attending the meeting of the Commission - this year  would expect many many more. So what do you need to be aware of when preparing for the Commission meeting? First though the meeting starts on the 2nd of March in fact it will be informally starting from the 25th of February. 25-26th February: Expert Group Meeting on the indicator framework for the post 2015 development agenda 26th February:  CR.B  ...

We believe that, to be effective, this Declaration should not exceed three pages A title such as “TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD – A CALL FOR GLOBAL ACTION” might be considered.  1. Opening paragraph: Heads of State and Government meeting at the UN adopt historic agreement on new framework. Integrated Agenda will provide opportunity to end poverty and hunger within a generation. Will ensure lasting protection of planet. Will create conditions for sustainable economic growth and prosperity. Bold and ambitious vision. Transformational Goals and targets. Build on Rio+20 Outcome Document, ‘The future we want’.  2. The MDGs were agreed 15 years ago. Since then, a crucial framework for development. However, progress on implementation uneven; some of Goals not achieved. Must complete unfinished business of MDGs.  3. The world today. A time of major global challenges to sustainable development, such as poverty and exclusion, unemployment, climate change, conflict and hum...

 TO UN DESA NGO MAJOR GROUP & OTHER STAKEHOLDERS -- FYI ​​​​​​​                ​ ​ SAVE THE DATE 'Making your voice heard: How to influence the post-2015 development agenda' 1:15 - 2:45pm, Tuesday, 17 February Room 2726 UN Secretariat Building, ​New York Beyond2015 ,  SD2015   and the   Tellus Institute  invite you to participate in this advocacy training to help you and your organisation successfully engage government delegates during the remaining post-2015 intergovernmental sessions. Following up on last month's training session, 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 confirm...

We have decided to cancel the Nexus 2015: Water, Food, Energy and Climate Conference at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, March 15-17. We are grateful for your interest in the Conference, and apologize for any inconvenience this may present. Should you have any questions please email nexus@unc.edu .

I have blogged on the bankers before who I believe have ‘privatized the profits and socialized the losses’. We have paid for their mismanagement. After the 2008 financial disaster you would have thought that the bankers would have learnt. The reality is of course few went to jail and the consequences was financial misery for many normal people losing their jobs, their house and so much more.   Of course Thomas Jefferson warned of this in a letter to John Taylor in 1816 : “And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." Of course it was Gordon Brown in the UK and President Clinton in the US who took away the restrains that kept apart the banking and casino speculation of banks that had been put in after the 1930s recession. Only a year ago there was the Libor interest ra...

While in Bonn at the preparatory meeting for  Eye on Earth  I took a moment out to meet my 'boss  Jurgen Nimptch ,  Mayor of Bonn. I had the pleasure to work with him and his team when I was chair of the 2011 UN DPI NGO  Conference  Sustainable Societies - Responsive Citizens. Last year he invited me to join the  'International Ambassadors'  for the City of Bonn which I was very happy to accept. I had been unable to go to the original ceremony so this gave me a chance also to pick up my special bottle of wine.

It was with great interest that I read Michael Liebreich’s blog on the SDGs . For those of my readers who do not know Michael he is doing great work at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. He and Bloomberg have hosted some very useful meetings on SD finance over the past few years. That brings me to his most recent blog. I can understand that some people are unhappy about the number of SDGs and the number of the targets. As I have said in previous blogs the difference between the MDGs and the SDGs is that the MDGs dealt with just development and developing countries and the SDGs deal with sustainable development and ALL countries. The world is a very complex and we find ourselves dealing with so many issues that are critical BECAUSE previous agreements such as Rio 1992 were not implemented. Lets not make that mistake again. It is true the UK has been trying to reduce the goals but again for the reason that I mentioned in previous blogs they have been told to stop doing that by the UK ...