Sustainable Development & Human Rights - Archive

The Campaign
How can the SDGs be used to hold governments and the private sector accountable for global issues like climate, the pandemic or finances? The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) is tasked with overseeing implementation of the 2030 Agenda, but it has proven itself to be insufficient. Civil society around the world organize campaigns on finances, trade, health, gender and the environment, utilizing spaces beyond the HLPF to advance accountability to the SDGs. As the SDGs are intrinsically interrelated [...]

Watch the interview of Barbara Adams (GPF) by International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW Asia Pacific) here.

By Elena Marmo

As the global community coalesced to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations in September 2020 under the shadow of COVID-19, Member States in their Declaration A/RES/75/1, made commitments to strengthen the multilateral system and set forth plans to “build back better”. Among the tools to do so, as recognized by UN leadership and Member States, are the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their importance is highlighted by marking 2020 as the start [...]

The virtual launching event of the Spotlight on Susainable Development 2020 took place on Friday, 18 September 2020.

If you missed it, you can watch the recording on youtube now. The details are below.

Roberto Bissio (Coordinator of Social Watch), Ziad Abdel Samad (Executive Director of the Arab NGO Network for Development – ANND)Vanita Mukherjee (Member of the Executive Committee of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era – DAWN) shared brief snapshots.

Policy conclusions were presented by Ignacio Saiz [...]

Bonn, 24. September 2020

Jens Martens of GPF was interviewed by Deutsche Welle on the progress of the SDGs.

Listen to the full interview here.

Lessons from the global COVID-19 crisis

This is the fifth edition of the report Spotlight on Sustainable Development. Since 2016, we have published this report annually to assess not only the implementation of the 2030 Agenda but also the structural obstacles in its realization.

When we started to plan for this year’s report in Autumn 2019, mass protests were shaking a growing number of countries in various regions of the world. In Ecuador, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, in Egypt, Lebanon [...]

Mass protests are currently shaking a growing number of countries worldwide. In Ecuador, Chile and Argentina, in Egypt and Lebanon, millions of people are taking to the streets. The reasons are complex, but the trigger is often a forced austerity policy by governments. In doing so, they are usually reacting to escalating foreign debt, deteriorating global economic conditions, and pressure from international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

There is a great danger that the situation will worsen [...]

By Karolin Seitz

Published by: Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Global Policy Forum, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

Berlin/Bonn/Suva/Toronto, October 2019

By Elena Marmo

Every year since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in 2015, governments are invited to present Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) on their progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) of the UN. This process is heralded by some as a great opportunity to hold governments accountable to their actions and by others as a beauty contest riddled with misrepresentation and power imbalances. Civil society organizations in many countries produce [...]

Transforming institutions – shifting power – strengthening rights Four years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda the world is off-track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most governments have failed to turn the transformational vision of the 2030 Agenda into real transformational policies. Even worse, xenophobia and authoritarianism are on the rise in a growing number of countries. But there are signs of change. Social movements have emerged worldwide, many with young people and women in the lead [...]

By Elena Marmo and Sophia McCarron

“There needs to be an examination of the hardware of the 2030 Agenda, rather than an upgrade of its software” concludes the 2019 Spotlight Report launched on Thursday, 11 July during the High Level Political Forum that reviews the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. The meeting was co-sponsored by Global Policy Watch, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES). Under the title of “Reshaping governance for sustainability”, the [...]

Studying EU policies thoroughly means studying policies of externalization. The thirteen chapters assembled in this publication constitute an impressive – impressively gloomy though – evidence for this assertion. Wherever you turn your eyes, whatever policy domain you may be concerned with: What at first glance may seem to be part of the European Union’s internal policies immediately turns out to be a story of externalities, a matter of spill-over effects transcending the borders of the European polity. And more often [...]

New York, 8 July 2019: “The world is off-track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most governments have failed to turn the transformational vision of the 2030 Agenda into real transformational policies. Even worse, xenophobia and authoritarianism are on the rise in a growing number of countries.”

“The implementation of the 2030 Agenda is not just a matter of better policies. It requires more holistic and more sweeping shifts in how power is vested, including through institutional and governance [...]

By Roberto Bissio

English version

Versión en español

Deutsche Version

By Roberto Bissio

versión en español

UN progress reports on almost any issue on which the secretariat is asked to inform Member States tend to follow the classic glass-half-full formula: We are moving, but much remains to be done.

Not surprisingly, this approach is repeated in the latest draft of the UN Secretary General’s report “Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals” to be officially published in July as an input for the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) where the 2030 [...]

By Roberto Bissio (1)

“Development” is usually understood as a synonym of “economic growth” and it is universally measured by per capita gross domestic product (GPD). “Sustainable” is usually understood as “within planetary boundaries” or “in harmony with Nature” or “respecting the rights of future generations and it is measured… well, the problem is that the world cannot agree on how to measure it and thus “sustainable development” is an unbalanced promise.

Target 8.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [...]

By Barbara Adams and Karen Judd

Download UN Monitor #02 (pdf version).

Statisticians from around the world, meeting at the UN Statistical Commission in March, will again take stock of progress in the world of data over the previous 12 months, largely driven by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The official report on filling the gaps in the global indicator framework—a clear priority of the 2018 Commission—show that while some progress has been made much has stalled [...]

Working Paper

By Karolin Seitz, with substantial contributions from Barbara Adams, Laraine Mills and Jens Martens

Published by: Bischöfliches Hilfswerk MISEREOR, Brot für die Welt-Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e.V., Global Policy Forum

Aachen/Berlin/Bonn/New York, February 2019

ISBN 978-3-943126-45-7

by Roberto Bissio, Coordinator, Social Watch

On the eve of a global meeting of experts from UN agencies and national statistical offices aimed at improving the sustainable development indicators, the World Bank launched its own “Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2018” in early November. While this features maps and attractive data visualizations for each of the SDGs, it highlights data and maps roadways that do not match the aspirations of the 2030 Agenda, and obscures the policy measures [...]

To coincide with the World Health Summit and the Grand Challenges Conference of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Berlin, Global Policy Forum, Brot fuer die Welt, medico international, and MISEREOR invite you to discuss the benefits, risks and side-effects of the WHO’s engagement with philanthropic foundations, and reflect on how the WHO can be strengthened in order to fulfill its responsibilities. Speakers will include representatives from the German Ministry of Health, the WHO (tbc) and international civil society.

How to overcome obstacles and contradictions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda “The world is off-track in terms of achieving sustainable development and fundamental policy changes are necessary to unleash the transformative potential of the SDGs.” This is the main message of the Spotlight Report 2018, the most comprehensive independent assessment of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

The third edition of the civil society report Spotlight on Sustainable Development states that unpaid care work represents the largest subsidy to the global economy and the main obstacle for women´s economic participation. Care public policies are needed to transform the social organization of care and narrow gender gaps.

New York, 9 July 2018: “The world is off-track in terms of achieving sustainable development and fundamental policy changes are necessary to unleash the transformative potential of the SDGs.” This is the main message of the Spotlight Report 2018, the most comprehensive independent assessment of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The report is launched on the opening day of the High Level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York by a global coalition of civil society organizations [...]

At the United Nations (UN) summit in September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adopted by all UN member states. The Agenda gives a comprehensive framework for a global socio-ecological transformation.

The novelty of the SDGs vis-à-vis the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is its paradigm shift: all countries, not just the countries of the Global South, have to implement the SDGs, working closely together to achieve the common goal of a [...]

The United Nations (UN) is a highly complex organisation. It can be difficult for civil society advocates to know where to start and the best way to exert any influence. This toolkit will help civil society organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders to navigate the politics and structure of the UN system and its main decision-making bodies. It will also provide a roadmap to help guide CSOs through the main types of UN agreements and how they are negotiated, with a [...]