Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Guest blog by Allen L. White : Global sustainability research, advocacy and institution-building. This is from the Keynote Address Measuring and Reporting Sustainability Performance: Are Corporations and SSE Organizations Meeting the SDG Challenge at United Nations Research in Social Development (UNRISD) It is a great pleasure to share a few perspectives with this distinguished group of thought leaders in the field of sustainability measurement and reporting. My appreciation to UNRISD, Il Cheong, and his team for the kind invitation. This convening comes at a critical moment for all those concerned about securing a just, thriving future. The daily newsfeed depicts alarming, concurrent threats to realizing such a vision. Some are existential, such as nuclear conflict, climate disruption, and species extinction. Others pertain to issues of economic and social justice, such as wealth disparities, human trafficking, employment insecurity, and privacy. Collectively, these condition...

The UN Joint Inspection Unit has completed its report on the United Nations system: private sector partnerships arrangements in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It clearly does not go far enough in the due diligence recommendations. It does suggest a role for rating systems of companies as an outside commentary on companies which the UN could use. " Organizations also note there are obvious benefits stemming from external due diligence assessments, and that the United Nations system should continue to engage private sector companies that specialize in rating the sustainability of prospective United Nations partner companies based on their environmental, corporate and social performance (including on human rights) ." This could be very important if the organization uses the Corporate Benchmark on Human Rights and the work of the World Benchmarking Alliance . I share the recommendations as a whole below and the full report can be read here. Recomm...

I did promise some thoughts on the Follow Up section of the zero draft . These are initial comments which I have put in bold I have used the text from the establishment of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development for 11bis but replaced Agenda 21 with the SDGs. This intersessional workign group on MOI which existed from 1993-2002 was a success and might be the best way of monitoring the MOI aspects of the SDGs and those elements in the FfD process that apply to them. Integrating the MOI discussing and in particular financing with the HLPF will eb critical to its success. If the finance process is happening somewhere else then the chances for implementation of the SDGs will diminish. I have added a paragraph (para 5bis)  in on corporate reporting to bring it in line with the Secretary General Panel of Eminent Peoples recommendation on this. What is being proposed here is already being ...

The last month has seen two processes try and complement each other these being the Financing for Development and the Post 2015 Development Agenda's Means of Implementation and Global Partnership for Development. Means of Implementation  I have made a number of suggestions on HOW there could be more synergy in previous blogs. The process is stuck at the moment until this is resolved. Three additional meetings for Finance for Development have now been added to the agenda in the next 6 weeks. The additional dates are the 11-15 May, 26-29th of May and the 1-5th of June. A total of 14 additional days of negotiations. There is much more to be discussed in the FfD process but by the end of the first new session an agreed approach does need to become solid for the rest of the negotiations to move forward. Financing for Development It is unclear what the follow up process will be. Will it be through the HLPF? Will it be through the similar mechanism that was set up after Monetary ...