Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

NEW YORK — Today, the Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development announced the release of Volume 7: Interlinking Major Sustainable Development Events to Embrace Policy Coherence and Implementation of the 2030 Agenda.   Felix Dodds , Secretary of the Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development and Director of Research and Development of Multilateral Policies and International Affairs at the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainable Solutions Service (RMWSSS) at Arizona State University, and a Fellow at Stakeholder Forum, coordinated the launch of the publication through his publishing company New World Frontiers. “We are excited to announce the seventh volume of this series of books produced by the Friends group,” said Dodds. “The book is an invaluable resource that includes chapters written by nearly a dozen experts working within the UN system on a range of issues whose perspectives are crucial for anyone working to advance sustainable development at the global level.” ...

Hosted by the government of Indonesia on behalf of the Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development  in cooperation with the UN-DESA Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development Introduction “8. We envisage a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination; of respect for race, ethnicity and cultural diversity; and of equal opportunity permitting the full realization of human potential and contributing to shared prosperity. A world which invests in its children and in which every child grows up free from violence and exploitation. A world in which every woman and girl enjoys full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed. A just, equitable, tolerant, open and socially inclusive world in which the needs of the most vulnerable are met.”  Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2...

Foreword from the new book   Governance for Sustainable Development Volume 4: Challenges and Opportunities for Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development . Also available as a free download from the Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development web site.   Verena Klinger-Dering, Meriem El Hilali, Hyemi Kim, Samuel Victor Makwe, Cristina Popescu, David Banisar, Felix Dodds and Quinn McKew The Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development were originally set up in 2010 to help member States prepare for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). They were re-established during the Open Working Group for the Post 2015 Agenda in 2014. The Friends group has since then continued to host workshops on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda represents one of the most important sets of Global Goals that the international community has committed to. It is an unprecedented effort that embodies universal aspirat...

Organized by Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future for the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), co-sponsored by the United Nations Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development – UNDESA , and in cooperation with the Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development a Pre-HLPF Workshop on 8 July 2019 – UN HQ, New York was held on the theme of National Councils for Sustainable Development and Other Similar Multi-Stakeholder Platforms: Exploring Their Role in Reviewing and Being an Implementation Agent for the 2030 Agenda The workshop aimed to: Initiate a global dialogue to exchange experiences, lessons learned, identify good practice, and reveal gaps in cross-sectoral and cross-governance exchange that could be more effectively addressed by councils and platforms at all levels; and Assess how National Councils for Sustainable Development and other types of multi-stakeholder platforms can help countries and governments deliver ...

An expert meeting for addressing the SDGs’ reviews in 2019 and the targets that will fall in 2020 and 2025 Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development in cooperation with UN-DESA Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development Meeting sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations Programme for the Workshop:  Programme for Friends of Government meeting – march final Session 1: Importance of SDG 16 and all other SDGs for achieving the 2030 Agenda; the case of climate justice Promoting rule of law, ending all types of violence and all sorts of illicit flows, reducing corruption and bribery, striving for effective, accountable and transparent institutions and responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels including global governance, providing legal identity, ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms, strengthening national institutions and prom...

On the 10th and 11th of September at the UN t he Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development in cooperation with UN-DESA Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development   held an expert meeting for reviewing how to improve the High Level Political Forum (HLPF). attending were governments, UN, Major Groups and Other Stakeholders. The title of the workshop was:  "Advancing the 2030 Agenda: Lessons learnt from the first cycle of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)– how far can we go?"  The power points as PDFs can be viewed on the Friends web site here.  Papers based on the presentations will be available at the end of October for groups to use to have their own internal discussions on the key subjects. 1.  Rethinking the UN intergovernmental bodies after the creation of the HLPF: the roles of the General Assembly, ECOSOC and HLPF In 2019, the High-Level Political Forum will complete i...

The second book Governance for Sustainable Development Volume 2: Implementing the 2030 Agenda by the Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development which is coordinated by the governments of Germany, Nigeria, Romania and the Republic of Korea. This volume is edited by Akinremi Bolaji, Jens-Michael Bopp, Yeongmoo Cho, Cristina Popescu, David Banisar, Felix Dodds and Quinn McKew Achieving sustainable development requires an enabling environment. Governance plays a crucial role in creating those conditions, notably, for our purposes in the implementation of the 2030 sustainable development agenda process. From creating new platforms to reforming old ones, the process must live up to this standard and its mechanisms should be geared towards fostering this type of new international environment and cooperation for sustainable development. This is the second volume produced by the Friends Group. The first volume presented the period from late 2014 to the end of 2015. The Group also ha...