{"id":1499,"date":"2018-09-19T12:40:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T10:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/didouqen.com\/?p=1499"},"modified":"2021-04-28T12:53:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T12:53:13","slug":"meet-a-2015er-yossef-ben-meir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/meet-a-2015er-yossef-ben-meir\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet a 2015er: Yossef Ben-Meir"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2013\u00a0Meet 2015er: Yossef Ben-Meir,<\/a>\u00a0U.N. Dispatch<\/strong>, Mythili Sampath Kumar (staff writer), 18 February 2015.<\/p>\n

This blog post is taken from an article written by Mythili Sampathkumar and published on February 18, 2015 for\u00a0UN Dispatch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is the second installment of our new \u201cMeet a 2015er\u201d series that profiles the women and men who are helping to shape the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change negotiations as they take form later this year.<\/p>\n

Today, we get a perspective from civil society. Yossef Ben-Meir is the cofounder and President of the Morocco-based High Atlas Foundation.<\/p>\n

What is High Atlas Foundation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The High Atlas Foundation was formed by former Peace Corps Volunteers in 2000. We help implement the projects communities prioritize. So as we work in rural Morocco most of our projects are in agriculture, water efficiency, clean drinking water, building schools, providing water and trees for schools, there is a range of projects that communities identify as important to them and we assist in implementing them.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re doing the \u2018on the ground,\u2019 real world version of what is being discussed in these SDG negotiations.<\/p>\n

How does that translate to the UN negotiating room where practical action isn\u2019t always discussed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2011, the High Atlas Foundation was granted consultative status in the ECOSOC. We feel that our experience in Morocco is transferable to other places. The practical lessons that we learn are relevant\u2026particularly in the final leg of the SDG discussions.<\/p>\n

[Our job in the negotiations is] really emphasizing: how do we make [the SDGs] real and apply it to people\u2019s lives? When we set these goals\u2026how do you actually apply that? We see ourselves as a bridge between micro and macro and try to make practical these very lofty, though important [high level policies].<\/p>\n

We try to participate in as many meetings as possible. More so, if you look at all the sector areas that are emphasized in SDGs, we have position papers in most of them. We are constantly generating material.<\/p>\n

Why cover multiple SDGs if your project work is usually in the climate area?<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do we have our cake and eat it too? How do we promote the environment and development all at once? The issue of climate change resonates in the other 16 goals as well. We can\u2019t separate climate change from matters of agriculture, water, energy, etc.<\/p>\n

For us, we have to describe our work to multiple perspectives. The first funding we got in 2003 was because the tree planting we were doing promoted public diplomacy. When you plan projects that communities identify with, you generate trust. And it was that, that made the U.S. Embassy fund the High Atlas Foundation in part. Climate change has to have that gamut. It has to have that form of environmental benefit for sure, but it also has to bend toward livelihood, lend toward things that enhance our lives.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take out the jargon of \u2018community involvement\u2019 and \u2018decentralization.\u2019 What does that really mean for sustainable development?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s in [Morocco\u2019s] national scheme\u2026participation is required and it defines sustainable development in a way that we do, and much of the world now does\u2026composed of not just environmental factors, but economic, political, cultural, historical, financial, technical. In order to have all of that, you require participation.<\/p>\n

USAID, UNDP, and World Bank all have evaluations that say that participation is even more important than finance for sustainable development.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s get back to the negotiating table at the UN. Why have 17 different goals that aren\u2019t completely separate? It sounds a bit confusing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exactly! Does it have to be 17 SDGs? Or can we find by way of integration a way to find how they are inseparable and [can we cut it down] to ten or 12? I think that may be helpful because first of all it\u2019s more realistic when you\u2019re presenting things as an integrated whole. Also, it\u2019s probably more manageable for nations and organizations to consider ten rather than 17.<\/p>\n

There are just too many goals. When you read each one individually they all sound good and extremely important! I wouldn\u2019t want to be the one to have to eliminate any of those.<\/p>\n

There [has to be] a way to make them\u2026more digestible. To a global audience of nations in different situations, it just seems a little unwieldy. When you have so many\u2026you can\u2019t see the interconnection between all of them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably unlikely that any change like this will happen before September, unfortunately. It is the UN. Given that, what are your hopes for the rest of 2015?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a practical hope, then there\u2019s your heart\u2019s hope.<\/p>\n

From our perspective, when you\u2019re riveted on community control and determination of their own development path \u2013 the SDGs would [ideally] be composed of the aggregate of all community-identified projects in the world. Then they you would classify then and there you would have your direction. But [of course] that\u2019s a lot of data collection even on the national level, which a lot of countries haven\u2019t done \u2013 especially in terms of even having communities identify their own needs. Then conveying that to the UN\u2026well, that\u2019s our heart\u2019s hope.<\/p>\n

That SDGs of the future are composed of an amalgamation of all the inputs of communities of the world \u2013 shouldn\u2019t that be what SDGs are?<\/p>\n

Do you think the UN will ever do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I look forward to seeing how the next round of SDGs in 2030 looks. I think we\u2019re going to learn a lot in 15 years. In the end, the UN is going to have to go down more and more and more to where the people are.<\/p>\n

No one wants elusive goals! In the end though, we\u2019re going to end up [at that point]. There\u2019s 70 years of experience in international development that says we will.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t worked! Look at the Millenium Goals, have they worked? No.<\/p>\n

So, by 2030 we should have this poverty reduction thing figured out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eventually the UN is going to have to face that bullet. You\u2019re advocating sustainable development without advocating internal structural reform that\u2019s required for sustainable development to occur.<\/p>\n

The UN is in a very delicate position because they can\u2019t interfere in the internal affairs of any one country. So, for them to come out and say \u2018you have to transfer [development] power to the people\u2019 or \u2018you have to decentralize planning and\u2026enhance sub-national levels\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s a little much for the UN to advocate.<\/p>\n

Yet, they\u2019re advocating the SDGs. There\u2019s not a person in the world \u2013 and I can literally show you hundreds of pages of text \u2013 that say you can\u2019t have participation without decentralization.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the lasting message to the UN about sustainable development then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be a little more brave in telling countries how to make development sustainable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2013\u00a0Meet 2015er: Yossef Ben-Meir,\u00a0U.N. Dispatch, Mythili Sampath Kumar (staff writer), 18 February 2015. This blog post is taken from an article written by Mythili Sampathkumar and published on February 18, 2015 for\u00a0UN Dispatch. This is the second installment of our new \u201cMeet a 2015er\u201d series that profiles the women and men who are helping to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54,47,70,66,103,115],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/yossef.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1499"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20894,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions\/20894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}