![](\"https:\/\/highatlasfoundation.org\/images\/stories\/lamia%20at%20the%20un.png\")
Sustainable Development Goals: Background on the post-2015 agenda<\/p>\nHAF attended the 5th session of the Open Working Group for Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, 25-27th November. As of 2011, HAF has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, allowing the Foundation to contribute to design of new sustainable development goals by the international community.<\/p>\n
Lamia Bazir, representative of the High Atlas Foundation, reports on the progress made at the 5th OWG session and highlights the agenda of the 6th session:<\/p>\n
Sustainable Development Goals: Background on the post-2015 agenda<\/p>\n
The Open Working Group is one of the main outcomes of the United Nations Conference on\u00a0Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, in June 2012. In the Rio+20 outcome document\u00a0\u201cThe Future We want,\u201d the international community committed to design new Sustainable\u00a0Development Goals (SDGs), built on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals\u00a0(MDGs).<\/p>\n
These new goals must be:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Action-oriented
\n\u00b7 Concise
\n\u00b7 Easy to communicate
\n\u00b7 Aspirational
\n\u00b7 Global in nature
\n\u00b7 Universally applicable to all countries while taking into account different national realities,
\ncapacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities.
\n\u00b7 Limited in number<\/p>\n
The Open Working Group is a byproduct of the Rio+20 outcomes, it represents an inclusive
\nintergovernmental process open to all stakeholders, in charge of developing the post-2015
\ndevelopment agenda, to be agreed by the General Assembly.<\/p>\n
The Fifth Session of the Open Working Group<\/p>\n
The 5th session of the OWG was based on the progress made by the four previous sessions and
\nconsecrated a series of activities and meetings between the UN General Assembly, the private
\nsector, and civil society. This meeting gathered expert panelists, open working group consistencies,
\nMajor Groups, as well as representatives of member states and civil society organizations. It was
\narticulated around two discussions. The first discussion dealt with Sustained and Inclusive
\nEconomic Growth, Macroeconomic Policy Questions (including international Trade, International
\nFinancial System and External Debt Sustainability), Infrastructure Development and
\nIndustrialization; and the second discussion was framed around the theme of Energy.<\/p>\n
The energy and eagerness of participants was notable since the opening of the session. Indeed, this
\nsession embodied a transformative progress since it moved away from topics on which a broad
\nconsensus was built such as: poverty, food security, health, education, water, and sanitation; and
\ntackled the challenging issues dealing with: macroeconomic policies, industrial development,
\ninfrastructure capacity, as well as the risks posed by sovereign debt and unregulated international
\nfinancial markets.<\/p>\n
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This three-days event was organized in a series of panels, nurtured by the expertise of researchers\u00a0including Jagdish Baghwati, professor at Columbia University; Adnan Amin, Director General of\u00a0the Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA); Jeffrey Sachs, professor at Columbia University, director\u00a0of the Earth Institute and special advisor to the UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon; Li Yong,\u00a0Director General of UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Amar Bhattacharya, from\u00a0the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty- Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development\u00a0(G-24), and other experts.<\/p>\n
The panels were followed by exchanges of views as well as a delivery of statements. Thus, the\u00a0session was a very dynamic and interactive process, it was not limited to statements of Member\u00a0States. It rather enabled the different stakeholders, including state representatives, civil society,\u00a0major groups, and regional representatives \u2013 such as the African Group, the Arab Group, the\u00a0European Union, the Least Developed Countries and Small Islands of the Pacific- to put forward\u00a0their perspectives and highlight their needs.<\/p>\n
Discussion 1: Sustained a nd Inclusive Economic Growth, Macroeconomic Policy Questions\u00a0(including international Trade, International Financial System and External Debt Sustainability),\u00a0Infrastructure Development and Industrialization<\/p>\n
25-26 November<\/p>\n
Experts and delegates addressed the issue of responding to macro-economic considerations and\u00a0growth imperatives in the new development agenda. Indeed, they highlighted that industrialization\u00a0is a prerequisite to economic growth and that growth is, itself, a driver of sustainable development.\u00a0\u201cNo country in history has developed without industrialization\u201d.Therefore, they considered that the\u00a0post-2015 Sustainable Development framework should set the enabling environment for\u00a0investment, infrastructure development, and capacity building in developing and least developed\u00a0countries.<\/p>\n
Thus, delegates referred to economic goals as an indispensable dimension, rather than an opposite,\u00a0of sustainable development. However, few speakers underscored potential \u201ctrade offs\u201d between\u00a0economic growth, on the one hand, and environmental and social sustainability, on the other.\u00a0Moreover, if the goal is to set up a set of global goals, it is significant, to highlight a remark made\u00a0by Jagdish Bhagwati. Stakeholders need to consider if these issues are \u201cgoal-able\u201d or if they rather\u00a0are policy priorities, hence instruments rather than goals. In addition to the domestic drivers to\u00a0growth and development, the participants emphasized the need for an open, transparent, and rules\u00a0based trading system, fair market access, and inclusiveness in international financial institutions.<\/p>\n
On the session of Monday afternoon, professor Jeffrey Sachs director of the Earth Institute and\u00a0special advisor to Ban Ki Moon presented the ten potential SDGs to the delegates. According to\u00a0Sachs, the most important role of having a set of global goals is to mobilize and engage the\u00a0public.The provisional list focuses on ten themes:<\/p>\n
1- Ending extreme poverty;
\n2- Jobs and continued development within the planetary boundaries;
\n3- Social inclusion;
\n4- Education for all;
\n5- Universal health coverage;
\n6- Food security and sustainable agriculture;
\n7- Climate change and sustainable energy;
\n8- Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems, including freshwater sources;
\n9- Resilient and sustainable cities;
\n10- Good governance.<\/p>\n
This proposed list further motivated delegates as it ignited the process of transiting from intentional\u00a0mapping to crafting a list of goals.<\/p>\n
Discussion 2: Energy<\/p>\n
26-27 November<\/p>\n
The majority of speakers suggested that \u201cEnergy Access\u201d should be included as a goal in the new\u00a0development agenda. Indeed, as most current development goals (health, education, water), it is\u00a0perceived as an \u201cenabler of development\u201d. Kandeh Yumkella, Special Representative of the\u00a0Secretary-General on Sustainable Energy for All, endorsed this dynamism and delivered a plea on\u00a0integrating \u201cEnergy Access for All\u201d as an SDG.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the delegates insisted that the energy-related goals should be evidence-based and\u00a0coupled with targets and measurable indicators. Renewable energy and the use of solar and wind\u00a0resources, especially in remote and rural areas, were also emphasized. Last but not least, many\u00a0countries \u2013 especially small islands- expressed their concerns about challenges of climate change\u00a0that represent a survival issue, and asked for special consideration for oceans.<\/p>\n
HAF attended the 5th session of the Open Working Group for Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, 25-27th November. As of 2011, HAF has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, allowing the Foundation to contribute to design of new sustainable development goals by the international<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/lamia-at-the-un-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828"}],"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=1828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}