Initial comments on the Newish Declaration
The Newish Declaration
Well we have the text forthe final negotiations for the Post 2015 Declaration. Don’t those attending the
Finance for Development (FfD) wish they had our facilitators?
Well I much more like the
preamble than last time! I am a sucker for People, Planet and Prosperity part
as it was the slogan for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and
adding Peace and Partnerships (also a WSSD priority) is pretty cool.
On the targets the
co-facilitators have taken a lead and put into the text the technical revisions
that they had proposed in the zero draft. Hmmmmmm that is going to be interesting
to see how that plays. The proposed change to the ocean target 14c is left
still to be discussed. I am sure the changes in the targets will be a central
part of the negotiations in the first week.
I think the human rights
and gender text seems better and it does look like the mention of CBDR in para
10 will cause the usual fights. I tried in a previous blog to point out why G77
is right but it didn’t seem to work.
The text still has an inconsistency
over terminology using stakeholders, civil society and actors in different
places it should replace actors and civil society with stakeholders throughout.
As I’ve said before the concept of civil society does not help bring the right
people to the table and in particular doesn’t give them their own space unlike
the concept of stakeholders. As Michael Edwards (formerly Ford
Foundation’s director of its Governance and Civil
Society Program) points
out civil society includes “think
pro and anti-choice groups, for example, or peaceniks and the NRA”.
On partnerships it would
accelerate work on this if the following paragraph was added:
66.bis insert We instruct
ECOSOC to review the Commission on Sustainable Development 11 decision on
Partnerships and take into consideration the Bali Guidelines on Partnerships
and update the instructions for Partnerships in light of the lessons learnt
over the past fifteen years.
Over the issue
of responsibility within the UN system for the different goals then the UN
Secretary General should be asked to assign responsibility. Adding something like
this:
71 bis insert To help with implementation we request the Secretary General to assign the overseeing of the SDGs to the relevant UN Agency and Programme under a Task Manager approach (similar to Agenda 21)
Who is to lead in the UN system on capacity building? I
would suggest that that should be done by building on the past and that the
addition of this paragraph would help.
71 ter insert To enable better implementation we call for
the creation of Capacity 2030 (similar to UNDPs Capacity 21) which would
support developing countries implementation of the SDGs and targets. UNDP and
UNDESA to coordinate Capacity 2030.
Finally there has been
concern about the role of the private sector in both the FfD process and the
Post 2015 process. We do this with the backdrop of the financial crisis in
Greece where they are asking for 370 billion euros. The US government AccountabilityOffice audit report just came out that points to how much the banks borrowed from governments in the recovery packages which
was $16 trillion to put that into perspective the total GDP of the US is $15
trillion. Some of the Banks did very well with our money Citigroup got $2.5
trillion, Morgan Stanley 2 trillion, Merrill Lynch 1.9 trillion, Bank of
America 1.34 trillion etc….. so let’s put some text in that requires companies
to report on their ESG. Two Secretary General Reports have recommended it.
72 bis We
encourage the creation of national regulatory frameworks on Economic
Environment Social and Governance (EESG) practices aiming at ensuring that
companies listed on stock exchanges report or explain their EESG practices and
policies by 2030. Technical support and capacity building would be needed
to facilitate the establishment of national regulatory frameworks, especially
when applied to larger companies with global reach and systemic impact, and the
uptake of EESG reporting for micro small and medium enterprises,
mindful of national circumstances.
No wonder governments don’t
have the money for the SDGs and FfD process they gave it all to the banks!!!
The final paragraph asks
member states to “the HLPF at its 2016 and 2017 meetings to provide adequate
time for member states to share national experiences.” My problem with this is
that the indicators will only be agreed in March 2016 and then sent to ECOSOC
and the UNGA to be agreed so there could be changes at least in ECOSOC and
finally adopted by the UNGA in December 2016…so I am not sure what can be
reported in 2016. What would be a better use for 2016 HLPF is to have an organizational
session as we did in 1993 and 2003 for the UN Commission on Sustainable Development to set out the agenda for the
HLPF in detail.
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