Women's Major Group, representing 500 women's organizations form all around the world, today addressed UN Secretary-general Ban Ki Moon with regard to his report to the 68th General Assembly on the progress towards the MDGs and the UN's development agenda beyond 2015. In the letter, which is supported more than 50 civil society groups (including GPF), the coalition calls for a stronger recognition of women's rights in the debated post 2015 development agenda as well as for a meaningful approach [...]
Nachhaltige Entwicklung und Menschenrechte
on the Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit, “A life of dignity for all: accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond"
The First session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean took place in Montevideo, 12-15 August 2013 with great attendance of women’s rights activists from the region. In this context AWID (Association in Women’s Rights in Development) identifies universal access to health, sexual and reproductive rights, and gender equality as key elements for the Post-2015 agenda on sustainable development.
ANND Statement
The Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) has issued a statement regarding their perspective of the current developments in Egypt. ANND describes the efforts they have made in achieving public democracy, social justice and stability during the unrest being faced in the Arab community. The network stresses the importance of ending all violence from conflicting sides to provide a safe basis to encourage economic and political development in Egypt. They recognize that the media has been adding to the cause [...]
Mixed report card
The European Commission’s recent accountability report and communication on financing for development highlights the importance of domestic resource mobilisation, tackling illicit financial flows and meeting aid promises.
But it contains no substantive new commitments, ducks issues of wider systemic reform and adopts an alarmingly one-sided endorsement of stepping up the use of public money to leverage private finance. These are the conclusions of an article written by Jesse Griffiths, Øygunn Sundsbø Brynildsen, Jeroen Kwakkenbos, María José Romero and Bodo Ellmers [...]
DIALOGUE, DEBATE, DISSENT, DELIBERATION
In a report commissioned by UN DESA/DSD Major Groups Programme in response to the Rio+20 outcome document, Barbara Adams and Lou Pingeot (Policy Advisors at GPF but acting in their personal capacities) take stock of the reviews of the history of Major Groups' engagement with the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and highlight examples of best practices that were deemed successful and efficient and those that did not work. Furthermore, they identify lessons learned from the experience and concerns raised [...]
"Climate Financing" in Developing Countries
Alliance Sud, a coalition of Swiss development NGOs, criticizes industrialized countries for not living up to the promises made at the Cancún climate conference in 2010. While rich countries had pledged additional funding to support developing countries, they have resorted to cosmetic tactics instead. Thus, Alliance Sud points out that Switzerland is trying to declare private financing as public contributions. Yet, more innovative public finance mechanisms would be needed instead. This process could endanger a global climate change agreement.
In an open letter to UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon, a coalition of women's rights groups DAWN, IWHC and Resurj urge Ban to reassert the importance of women's rights within the post-2015 development agenda. They call on the Secretary-General to put on emphasis on women's reproductive health, sexual education for both girls and boys and the promotion of women's leadership. The groups see an emerging consensus in the High-Level Panel's report, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network's report and the Global Compact's [...]
Essential for Development Sustainability in Pacific Small Island States
Pacific women advocates as part of the Women’s Major Group have issued a statement for the Pacific Small Island Developing States Preparatory Meeting in Nadi, Fiji. The statement calls for recognizing the central role of women for sustainable development in the Pacific area in the outcome document of the Preparatory Meeting that took place in June 2013. The Meeting is part of preparations for Third International Confenrence on SIDS (Small Island Developing States) that will be held in 2014.
The Agenda of the United Nations Should Respect Nature and Listen to the People
“The worst thing about living in extreme poverty is the contempt - that they treat you like you are worthless, that they look at you with disgust and fear and that they even treat you like an enemy.”
“We experience the violence of being discriminated against, of not existing, not being part of the same world, not being treated like other human beings.”
Time and again, poverty is associated with violence against the people that suffer it. Poverty is frequently [...]
The debates on an agenda for international co-operation and development beyond 2015 offer the opportunity to (re-)address in a holistic manner well-being and justice in societies. Given the economic, social and ecological challenges in the world, this is urgently needed.
The present framework of international development goals centering on the MDGs and the related strategies do not provide adequate answers to the global problems, be they accelerated global warming, the growing gap between rich and poor, the financialization of the [...]
