This ProgBlog article written by Jack Cornforth, Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, is part of the Wikiprogress Post-2015 series.
This month Stakeholder Forum has launched a
new online tool to crowdsource stakeholder proposals for global goals for the post-2015 period. The Sustainable
Development Goals e-Inventory provides
all stakeholders with a platform to outline their visions for new universal
goals for development, whether they be individuals, organisations or networks,
from developed or developing countries, or representatives from NGOs, the private
sector, or any other stakeholder group.
With the target date for the Millennium
Development Goals fast approaching,
attention has turned to what will happen beyond 2015 and several international processes are now working towards determining a new
development agenda with new set of global goals. One such process is the
negotiation track to create a universal set of sustainable development goals (SDGs), which aims to integrate the development
and environment agendas under one framework.
Acting as an online repository, the
e-Inventory aims to support stakeholders, including governments and intergovernmental
organisations, to become better informed about the wide range of proposals,
expectations and evidence-based arguments on SDGs, and other global goals for
development, that are being proposed as part of the ongoing discussions on the
post-2015 development framework.
Crucially, the SDGs e-Inventory is
interactive, allowing stakeholders to submit their own ideas, update their
submissions, and provide feedback and comments on other proposals as the
discussions on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the SDGs develop. Stakeholders
visiting the site are encouraged to propose specific goals, together with
targets and indicators, or they can simply emphasise the principles and themes
that they think the new framework should be based upon and address.
The e-Inventory is targeted at sustainable
development practitioners,
and aims to provide users with the
resources to develop their thinking, and the space to outline and disseminate
their experiences of, research on, and recommendations for, global goals. Accordingly,
the SDGs e-Inventory includes a capacity building component (currently being populated) to help stakeholders
to fill knowledge gaps around the intergovernmental process, develop their own
proposals, build alliances, and develop advocacy strategies.
There are a number of other consultation
processes already underway – such as the My World campaign, which is soliciting broad priorities
from the general public – which aim to gather stakeholder inputs for post-2015
development agenda. However, the e-Inventory is one of the first projects aiming
to source recommendations for global goals directly from stakeholders and to feed
into the intergovernmental process on SDGs via the Rio+20 mandated Open Working Group (OWG). Whilst the modalities for the OWG are still
being determined, it is ultimately this UN process that will outline an overall
vision for SDGs for Members States to consider in the General Assembly.
It is important to emphasise that the SDGs
e-Inventory, as a project, is itself not aiming to make prescriptive
recommendations for goals based upon the submissions it receives. Rather, it
aims to provide an evidence base to support stakeholders and governments to reach
well-informed positions on SDGs, and see that the eventual outcome takes
stakeholder recommendations into account. As well as encouraging users to
utilise the information housed in the e-Inventory to support their own advocacy
activities, Stakeholder Forum will also conduct and disseminate regular analysis
of the data.
Reaching a large and diverse cohort of
stakeholders, whilst ensuring that the most marginalised sectors of society are
not excluded, will be one of the main challenges the project must overcome to
be successful. To do so, Stakeholder Forum has partnered on the project with organisations and networks covering all geographical regions. These partners
will not only be integral to ensuring the wide dissemination and use of the
SDGs e-Inventory, they will also play a key role in seeing that the capacity
building resources provided are tailored to the different needs of a wide range
of stakeholders; that the information the inventory houses is optimal for
advocacy purposes; and that the project receives strategic input from
organisations and network with different areas of focus (both environment and
development), as well as a full range of regional perspectives.
To further increase accessibility and use by
parties around the world, we also plan to translate the user interface – which
is currently only available in English – into French and Spanish.
Overall, it is hoped that tool will increase
the likelihood of achieving a SDGs framework which fully integrates the three
dimensions of sustainable development (social, environmental and economic).
To find out more, search existing proposals,
or make your own submission, visit: www.SDGseInventory.org
Jack Cornforth
The OECD Global Forum on Development would like to hear your opinions on the following major themes.
- Post 2015: Effective partnerships for development in a changing world. Click here to discuss
- Beyond Poverty reduction: The challenge of social cohesion in developing countries. Click here to discuss
- Measuring poverty, well-being and progress: Innovative approaches and their implications for statistical capacity development. Click here to discuss
- The global-national nexus and country-level policy action. Click here to discuss
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