The Post 2015 Sustainable Development
Agenda
TUDCN General meeting
CSA/TUCA
Sao Paulo, Brazil
19 March 2014
www.ituc-csi.org
Summary
• What the MDGs tell us for a Post 2015
Sustainable Development Framework
• The many processes of the Post 2015
Sustainable Development Agenda
• The Open Working Group on SDGs and what
it is doing
• What comes next?
www.ituc-csi.org
From MDGs…
• The greatest triumph of the MDGs was to mobilize
broad support for a global development agenda
• While there was progress on many of the MDGs has
been made in certain areas the global promise will in
almost all certainty go unfulfilled by 2015
• Three major criticisms of the MDGs are (1) it was
developed by a small group of experts and was not
member state driven (2) it is too aid focused/donor
driven and (3) it completely overlooked the issue of
inequality
www.ituc-csi.org
…to the Post 2015 Sustainable
Development Framework
• The UN intergovernmental process will begin in
September 2014 to agree the successor framework
to the MDGs which are set expire in 2015
• Pretty clear that some of the shortcomings of the
MDGs will be addressed, especially around UN
ownership
• The Post 2015 SDGs will go beyond aid and will
address three pillars of Sustainable Development:
Economic, Social, Environmental
www.ituc-csi.org
Proliferation of Process
• The number of officially mandated processes aiming to influence
the Post 2015 agenda is astounding
• Started with High Level Panel of Eminent Persons, UN SDSN
(Jeffrey Sachs), UN Global Compact, Committee on Sustainable
Development Financing, SIDS, HLPF, Special Initiatives of the
PGA Regional Activities and agencies within the UN System
convening their own internal process, e.g. UNDP, UNEP,
UNRISD—not to mention all of the CSO mobilizations around
the process
• Reality is despite all of these initiatives the UN General
Assembly will agree the Post 2015 SD Framework
• To date, most important process is the Open Working Group…
www.ituc-csi.org
The Open Working Group for Sustainable
Development Goals
• Rio +20 Conference on SD mandated a follow up process to
come up with SDGs which would be integrated in to the Post
2015 Framework
• OWG is officially 30 Member State Seats; but shared by up to
three member states: “troikas”
• Two stage deliberations began in March of 2013 and will
conclude with report to UNGA in September 2014
• 1st stage (March 2013-February 2014) 8 thematic sessions to
table different issues: Employment, Decent Work and Social
Protection
• 2nd Stage (March 2014-September 2014) “negotiations” on set of
SDG recommendations
www.ituc-csi.org
Current state of play
• Following thematic debates across different areas
during first stage of OWG the co-chairs (Hungary and
Kenya) extrapolated a set of “focus areas” or clear
priorities
• There are currently 19 Focus areas will serve as the
foundation from which the SDG recommendations will
be prioritized
• Following OWG in early March we can expect a
consolidation of Focus Areas as early as 19 March
www.ituc-csi.org
About the focus areas
• What’s there? (though not without criticism)
– Employment and Decent work
– Education
– Gender Equality
– Promoting equality
• What’s missing?
– No recognition of structural flaws of current development
model
– Human rights based approach
– Social Protection Floors
– Links between employment and environment
www.ituc-csi.org
About the focus areas cont..
• What should be added/strengthened in the focus areas:
– Decent work be articulated and understood in all its dimension and priorities
be organized under the four strategic pillars
•
•
References to fundamental principles and rights at work, labor market institutions, respect for
internationally agreed standards
Improve links between employment and the environmental pillar
– Social Protection needs to be dramatically ramped up in the focus areas
with a concrete and explicit commitment to the creation and implementation
social protection floors
– Promoting equality must recognize the importance of labor market
institutions to address and redress inequality
•
Explicit about minimum living wages, collective bargaining and social protection floors
– Free quality education must be included, to address the issue of tuition fees
and other indirect costs excluding marginalized groups
– Gender Equality must address also the imbalances in power, wealth and
resources
www.ituc-csi.org
What happens after the OWG?
• The OWG concludes its deliberations in July 2014
and delivers its recommendations to the UNGA in
September 2014
• Two general sentiments about what happens with
OWG recommendation
– It will be the main input into the Post 2015 SDG
framework and a good indication of what to
anticipate
– The General Assembly will mostly ignore the
recommendations of the OWG and begin
negotiating from a blank slate
www.ituc-csi.org
The Final Leg
• All inputs from the last two years will have
been put to the UN Secretary General and
presented to the UN GA in September 2014
• The UNGA will agree on a way of working to
produce a Post 2015 Sustainable
Development Framework by September 2015
www.ituc-csi.org
If you want to contribute
JOIN the Post 2015 email list
Speak to Lora or myself
www.ituc-csi.org