Sneak peek of the post-2015 global development agenda* by Johanna Morden on 30 May 2013*
A panel of leaders appointed by the United Nations will propose on Friday a
highly anticipated global blueprint for eradicating extreme poverty by
2030, and kick off a phase of intense lobbying and negotiations, which may
affect international cooperation — and the delivery of foreign aid — for
years to come.
The framework will push for the completion of the Millennium Development
Goals, a set of anti-poverty goals meant to be reached by 2015. It will
also seek to boost employment and achieve inclusive economic growth, while
safeguarding the environment, promoting good governance, and advancing
peace and democracy around the world.
Devex has learned that recommended goals will be universal in character.
However, the targets associated with these goals may be set either globally
or at national and local levels and may be split into categories, such as
age, sex, and income.
The release of the report is expected to set in motion a flurry of activity
within the U.N. system, as well as governments and civil society around the
world. The global aid community, in particular, is expected to lobby hard
for specific targets to be included in a final post-2015 development
blueprint, which will be a focal point for discussion at the United Nations
General Assembly in September.
Global health advocates for instance may be disappointed about the apparent
omission of universal health coverage from the high-level report to be
released on Friday. Others will welcome the focus on reducing inequality
and call for broad stakeholder engagement and partnership between the
public, private and nonprofit sectors.
*A work in progress*
The 27 members of the panel — co-chaired by President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and
Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom — were appointed by U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in July 2012, tasked with advising him on a
global development framework beyond 2015, the target date for the MDGs.
Over the past six months, the panel consulted a range of stakeholders,
including those in the developing world, on their priorities. Initiatives
such as The World We Want or My World, where citizens voted on their
development priorities online, also fed into the drafting process.
These consultations — on top of meetings in London, Monrovia and Bali — led
to the panel’s vision for global development: a transformative,
people-centered and planet-sensitive post-2015 development agenda that ends
extreme poverty and enables sustained prosperity for all.
The next steps include the panel handing over its recommendations to Ban,
before publication on the Secretary-General’s website at 3 p.m. EDT today.
A number of briefing and discussion events, featuring HLP members and civil
society stakeholders, will follow, including sessions in New York and
Nairobi during the coming days. It is expected that such gatherings will
provide the impetus for debate and negotiation on the development agenda
supposed to succeed the current MDGs from 2015.
*What the aid community wants*
Ahead of the release of the report, prominent figures from the development
aid community have been sharing their opinions on how the post-2015 agenda
should be shaped. These comments are indicative of issues that will likely
shape the debate in the days ahead.
The report will attempt to tackle two challenges that have been at the top
of the agenda for many advocates: the importance of reducing inequality and
the need for practical, measurable and global goals. European Commissioner
for Development Andris Piebalgs’ call for one set of goals and a simple
architecture is also a cornerstone of the panel’s framework, according to
one senior source.
Other issues that will be closely scrutinized include how the report will
address disaster risk management, raised by Yudhoyono and others, as well
as women’s empowerment, an issue close to the heart of U.K. Secretary for
International Development Justine Greening and many other leading figures.
Areas of the report that may not satisfy all parties, include calls for
minimum standards for equal and quality learning by UNICEF Deputy Director
Geeta Rao Gupta and others, or for a specific focus on education finance by
people such as UNESCO Global Monitoring Report chief Pauline Rose.
Financing for Development in Africa 