Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

TO UN DESA NGO MAJOR GROUP & OTHER STAKEHOLDERS NGOs attending the ECOSOC Partnership Forum who wish to make brief interventions during the Q&A at the morning and/or afternoon sessions are invited to meet at 9:00 am at the UN Secretariat, S-26MM2. FYI -- The ECOSOC Partnership Forum will be webcast at http://webtv.un.org/ . Please find attached a copy of the special presentation to be made by Dr. Nils Simon on Thursday for the afternoon dialogue. The partnership webinar presentations may be found here: http://www.civicus.org/images/Second SDG Partnerships Webinar.pptx http://www.civicus.org/images/Beisheim_Partnerships_Webinar_20160302.pdf http://www.civicus.org/images/A%20history%20of%20the%20UNs%20involvement%20in%20%20Multi-stakeholder.pptx http://www.civicus.org/images/Beisheim%20Simon%20ECOSOC%20Partnership%20Forum%20160311.pdf http://www.civicus.org/images/2015partnerships_background_note.pdf http://www.civicus.org/images/2016%20ECOSOC%20P...

Another sad day for the world of environment and sustainable development with the passing of Dr. Mostafa Kamal Tolba. In 1972, he led Egypt’s delegation to the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment which gave rise to UNEP. Initially he was appointed as Maurice Strong’s Deputy Director and took over from him in 1975 serving as UNEP Executive Director until 1992. He worked tirelessly to promote the environment in the 17 years as Executive Director and built UNEP into a global voice for the environment. The idea of a global commission on environment and development was first promoted by Canada in 1982 at the ten-year anniversary of Stockholm. This would become the World Commission on Environment and Development which subsequently birthed the Rio Earth Summit. His work will probably be best remembered around the development of the Framework convention on Ozone Depleting Chemicals in 1985 and its subsequent Montreal Protocol reducing CFCs in the world in a very short time...

One of the great authors of the early part of the 20 th century was Edgar Rice Burroughs best known for his creations of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter. One of his least well known books in Beyond 30 (later called ‘The Lost Continent’) – written in 1915 and published in March 1916 – one hundred years ago this month.  The story was heavily influenced by the events of World War I, and it reflects U.S. sentiments at the time of writing. Many Americans were predominantly isolationist and did not want to be drawn into an European war. The story focuses around the US severing contact with Europe and then imagines a future in two centuries time, when for the first time the US comes into contact with Europe and the  rest of the world.   This short plot uses the same idea but in reverse. It imagines countries shocked at the possibility of the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. They decide to ban together and t...

CMMB Announces $500 million Commitment to UN’s SDGs On the 21st of March at the United Nations Headquarters, CMMB-Healthier Lives Worldwide announced a $500 million commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the updated Global Strategy on Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health. For more than a century, collaboration has been a core CMMB value, essential to achieving far reaching impact in the global health arena.  While the last few decades have seen dramatic progress in global health, it is still estimated that nearly 800 women die each day from largely preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth; 99 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries. CMMB President and CEO, Bruce Wilkinson said, “ We know from experience that reaching the most vulnerable populations, especially women and children, will take a renewed commitment. CMMB is taking a bold step by providing $500 million over the next 5 years for general support of...

Introduction This year can at times seem a little confusing - this is because in the agreement on 'Transforming Our World' a lot was left to be sorted out afterwards. UN Fit for Purpose The co-facilitators for reviewing the process to take decisions on critical issues that are addressed in the UN Secretary General’s report (available here) on his suggestions on how the UN will reform to address the new Global Goals agenda have been selected. They are: Permanent Representative of Belize, Her Excellency Ms. Lois M. Young, and Permanent Representative of Denmark , His Excellency Mr. Ib Petersen In November there was an open consultation on what should be in the report you can read the synthesis of member states, UN system and Major Groups and Other Stakeholders (MGoS) below. Synthesis of member states input can be found here. Synthesis of UN System can be found here . Synthesis of Major Groups and Other Stakeholders can be found here The co-facilitato...

TO UN DESA NGO MAJOR GROUP & OTHER STAKEHOLDERS We invite you to the second webinar on partnerships ​to ​ tak​e place on Thursday, 17 March, 9:30 am - 11:30 am ​ Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-4:00)​ . ​Felix Dodds will guide a conversation where participants will discuss questions posed in the two dialogue papers prepared for the ECOSOC Partnership Forum on 31 March. These questions may be found here where NGOs, major groups and stakeholder groups will be invited to submit their written inputs. We propose to gather this input into a paper to circulate to member states at the Partnership Forum where participating NGO observers will also be given the opportunity to make interventions from the floor at the interactive dialogue sessions taking place in the morning and afternoon. Please read the outcome from the UNDESA Retreat summary before the webinar and the two dialogue papers, here and here . The outcome from the ECOSOC Partnership Forum will result ...

This blog originally appeared here: Within the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda there are 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and 169 targets that should be achieved by all countries in the world. This is not a ‘North gives to the South’ or a ‘charity’ agenda, as the Millennium Development Goals were, but a framework that requires universal implementation. In September 2015, world leaders agreed on the ambitious 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda that has the potential to change the global economic system. By making the most of this opportunity, the international community could break out of the ‘business as usual’ approach that left the Millennium Development Goals unmet. If governments really want to take this new framework seriously, it requires not only economic changes, but also most importantly political change because of the need to shift power relations and vested interests in the existing economic system. The Sustainable Development Agenda is based on human rights, ju...

Summary of key ideas and proposals from Partnership Retreat (full report available here ) The below summarizes the key proposals emerging from the compiled messages above: A nexus approach should be promoted by the UN and applied by MSPs, reflecting the crosssectoral nature of the 2030 Agenda. More focus is needed on MSPs at the country-level and MSPs in LDCs and other countries in special situation need to be encouraged. UNDESA could take the lead in mapping partnership initiatives, supported by the Global Compact. The online platform “Partnerships for SDGs” should be improved, including search functions and regular updates. There might however be an issue of capacity. The differentiation between different types of partnerships needs to be further defined and clarified as a first step. It must reflect that partnerships do not only include business, but all relevant stakeholders including philanthropy, NGOs and academia. The GA resolution on “Towards Global Partnershi...