Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Dear colleagues, On 27 September 2019 , the General Assembly will hold a one-day high-level review of the progress made in addressing the priorities of small island developing States (SIDS) through the implementation of the SAMOA Pathway. The General Assembly has decided that the high-level review will result in a concise action-oriented and inter-governmentally agreed political declaration.  In accordance with General Assembly resolution 72/307, interested relevant major groups organizations that are not currently accredited by ECOSOC or that have not been accredited to participate in the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development; the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development; the previous United Nations conferences on the sustainable development of SIDS, held in Barbados in 1994 , in Mauritius in 2005 , and in Samoa in 2014 ; or the 2017 High-level United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Cons...

Guest blog: Public Services International (PSI) - originally published here.  Download this chapter in pdf format here. Quality public services are the foundation of a fair society and a strong economy. Such services make our communities and economies more equitable, resilient to downturn and disaster, and protect the youngest, sick, unemployed, disabled, aged and vulnerable. Quality public services are among the State’s primary mechanisms for fulfilling its obligations for the realization of human rights, gender equality and social justice. They are key to the implementation of the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, including SDG 9 on building resilient infrastructure. Quality public services also support the economy by providing public infrastructure, research and innovation, a healthy and skilled workforce, and strong and stable justice and regulatory institutions. To be universally available and accessible, quality public services must provide guaranteed access for...

Fundamental transformation is needed to make the world more equal, democratic, peaceful, and sustainable. Almost 10 years to go to 2030 and with the current model of economic development already identified as unsustainable, our world is facing a critical implementation gap between promises and actions and tremendous challenges that stand in the way of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The problems are so grave that multilateralism and democratic pluralism are in danger. The environmental crisis has sharply accelerated and economic development is not happening for too many people while inequality has reached dramatic levels, putting basic human rights at threat. With a handful of individual billionaires as wealthy as half of humanity, the growing imbalance exacerbates key issues such as corruption and illicit financial flows, unsustainable debt levels, high risks towards another financial crisis, lack of access to basic infrastructure, goods and services, unfair labour pr...

For the fourth time, The Hague has hosted from 19-20 February 2019 the Planetary Security Conference. This year, the conference’s motto was #doable. Implementation of measures to tackle climate security risks were on the table, and the conference was transformed into a platform for sharing experiences and lessons learned on preventative action. We have compiled a series of expert interviews on key issues and regions. *BEST OF Planetary Security Conference 2019*: http://bit.ly/BestofPSC2019 Climate policy as an approach for security – Interview with Susanne Dröge, SWP Berlin: https://adelph.it/ClimPolicy4Sec One of the biggest political challenges today is to close the gap between climate action and security objectives. Susanne Dröge argues that the debate on climate security is expected to become more prominent and dynamic in the near future. Making cities livable through nature-based solutions – Interview with Luc Bas, IUCN: https://adelph.it/LivableCities ...

The five United Nations Regional Commissions to work together to make PPP ‘fit for purpose’ for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development I have argued for well over a year that NGOs and other stakeholders should be engaging in the People First PPP work that has been undertaken in the UNECE. As I have said in previous blogs the push for a global agreement on Principles for PPPs as was envisioned in the Addis Agreement through something I supported should not stop an approach that was developing at the European UN Regional Commission. I took the view to be a positive critic and offer suggestions on what those Principles should be and their accompanying support material. I have found the process open and frank. The more I became involved the more I felt we would a better set of principles might be developed through each UN Regional Commission developing their own more regional sensitive and regionally informed set of Principles. A bottom-up approach --- one that does not preclude th...