Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Sometimes i do wonder about the press. They got it wrong on Rio+20 - except a few notable exceptions such as Richard Black at the BBC and afterwards John Vidal at the Guardian but most thought it was a failure - well clearly that has turned out to be a wrong assessment. That brings me to the yesterdays Economist article on the SDGs . Who ever wrote the article clearly did not research what has been happening on the SDGs,  why we have got to the position we have nor what the real implications A few things that might have helped them - if they had researched it and they might have liked to consider when writing the article or future articles The author doesn't seem to know that this is NOT a development agenda it is a sustainable development agenda It is not for developing countries it is for ALL countries .  It is not about developing countries it is about EVERY country Unlike the MDGs which were dropped in at the last moment this process has gone t...

Indicators  The worry that some people had over indicators being used to re-open the targets and goals seems to have been allayed.The approach will be as we have highlighted here in previous posts. The Statistical Commission will establish the In ter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicators (IAEG-SDGs)  will now be set up and will develop the framework for the Indicators and agree the indicators. This will be a technical  input to the agreed targets. The survey conducted of around half the member states which i mentioned in a  previous blog was quiet rightly shelved. I am continually pleased by the way that the UN Statistical Division is doing their work. Finally the outcome in march 2016 of the Statistical Commission will still have to go to UN ECOSOC and finally to the UN General Assembly in December 2016. Goals and Targets - Dead Parrot? I have to say that while I was watching the session yesterday on the Goals and Targets ...

The Co mm unitas Coalition and its core partners I C LEI Local G overn m ents for Sustainability, Tellus Institute, U N -­‐ H abitat and the N et w ork    of    Regional    Govern m ents    for    Sustainable    D evelop m ent    nrg4SD    are    delighted    to    convene    this    discussion    in collaboration   w ith   the   G roup   of   M e m ber   States   Friends   of   Sustainable   Cities,   the   W orld   Urban   Ca m paign,   the   Urban   S D G Ca m paign and the Ford Foundation. O ur panel of urbanisation practitioners and govern m ents w ill outline the challenges and the o pp o rtuniti e s t hat lie behind m easuring progress on SDG11. They w ill also present their ongoing experience on indicators ...

A very interesting paper has been circulated by the co-chairs which looks at the targets to see if they are in line with previous agreements. 19 Targets from the 169 Targets have been identified as having previous agreements which need to be coordinated with or a suggestion of how to replace x with a number. The easy targets will be where there has been a previous agreement for governments to agree to. The suggestions for the x will I believe need much more discussion. Are there any other targets that should be looked at? I don't think so at this point this was always a package and should be understood in that way. Here is the list of suggested changes for the 19 targets and what the new language could be and what the rationale is. Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all age s 3.2 Present target By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age Suggested amended new target By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns a...

Maria Bolevich  conducted an interview with me late last year you can read it in the latest issue of  Global Education Magazines . The first question and answer: From 1985 to 1987, you were the chair of the UK LIBERAL YOUTH WING PARTIES. How much political experience has helped you and are today politicians sufficiently interested for the environmental protection? Felix Dodds :  What being active in a political party did was help me understand the way politicians act and the way policy is developed and the role the civil servants have in it. Most NGOs do not and that puts them at a huge disadvantage when dealing with the political process. As far as politicians interest in the environment is concerned it depends some come to the issue through an understanding of the impacts policies are having on their community, their country the world others come from a religious values perspective that we are custodians of the planet for God and then others through an interest ...

The agenda for next weeks Post 2015 process starts with two days on indicators. It will have presented a report from the Statistical Commission . Overall the tone of the Statistical Commission's report is good. they recognize the role they have in providing 'technical support' to the political process. They were asked by G77 to ensure they came forward with suggested indicators for ALL the targets, They nearly managed this based on a survey of countries national statistical offices there are of the 169 targets only 7 to date without suggested indicators. These are: Target 1.b.  sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions. Target 3.a Strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate. Target 3.b Support the research and...

Sometimes I may be a little critical of my country and the present Coalition government but on Monday i was proud of it . On Monday the House of Lords passed the " The International Development (Official Development Assistance (ODA) Target) Bill " which will make it legally required for all UK governments to provide 0.7%  gross national income  ( GNI) for ODA. It is awaiting royal consent. The last time that didn't happen was under Queen Victoria so it is going to happen. The bill was proposed by the Liberal Democrat MP Michael Moore under what is termed a Private Members Bill and supported by all sides of the House and shepherded through the House of Lords by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Purvis . There was some attempt by a few conservative MPs to stop it but they failed. The UK is the ONLY G8 country to give 0.7% GNI I hope others will follow. Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, USA and Canada please note. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the cli...

Part 2: Reflections on the Financing for Development Zero Draft: The Action Agenda It is always good to take a little time before responding to such a large document as the one produced for Financing for Development so I decided to break my response into two. The first which you haven’t yet read was on the Addis Ababa Accord – which is the heads of State section of the output document. I am now going to make comments on the second part of the output document and that is the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Again I will not comment on the status of the commitments on the traditional Monterrey Consensus there are a large number of NGOs doing a very good job of that. I will focus my comments on the ‘sustainable development’ aspects of the Action Agenda. My reference point will be the text that I prepared for the UN DPI NGO Conference last year and which was adopted by that conference. I will rate the outcome 1 poor to 5 excellent. UN DPI NGO Conference called for: By 2020 Governme...