Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

The background papers are out for the UN secretariat to start to undertake consultations on the Secretary General’s   Repositioning the UN development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda – Ensuring a Better Future for All I want to do a couple of blogs on these. The first will be on the approach to the regional level in Realigning the Development Agenda. The second on the National Level. I have always been a fan of the UN Regional Economic Commissions (REC) as a mechanism to bring together countries at similar levels of development and to share experiences, build capacity, develop policy and in certain Commissions legally binding agreements relevant to their region. With certain OECD countries, there has been a tendency to underfund these activities. At times, the USA and the UK have in particular been critical of these regional commissions. This is a real opportunity to reclarify the role and responsibilities of the RECs. The instructions the Deputy Secretary General has...

It is getting a   little tiring   to have to keep defending what has been the   most participatory and open global conversation and development of policy priorities   that we have ever had. Some of the criticisms have come from those   who didn't get what they wanted   in the Sustainable Development Goals and targets   others because they haven't participated in the process   and now realize it is too late and o thers because they don't seem to recognize the huge challenges   that we fact in the world in the coming years. Of course it would be easier if we didn't have to cover so many issues but we had that chance that was the 1990's. The lack of delivery of previous commitments means that of course the world now has to face so many more urgent issues. I read the story in   Humanosphere   and of course I wasn't at the meeting so I can only comment on what was reported as being said. It was a report on the Bill and Melin...