This blog, written by Amy Cutter and Jack Cornforth of Stakeholder Forum, discusses the breakdown of proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by theme, stakeholders and regions. It is a cross-blog from the Stakeholder Forum's Sustainable Development 2015 website and is part of Wikiprogress' Post-2015 and environment series.
It has been a busy month
for governments, UN agencies and stakeholders working towards a new sustainable
development framework for post-2015. The UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the
UN Global Compact have all
published reports with their recommendations for new global goals to replace the
MDGs when they expire at the end of 2015, and the intergovernmental Open Working Group (OWG) tasked with
proposing a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has just met for the
last time before its summer break, to discuss how thematic areas such as health,
employment and education could be addressed by the new goals
framework.
Stakeholder Forum, with support from
partners in all global regions, is
contributing to these efforts by coordinating the SDGs e-Inventory, an online tool that provides stakeholders with a platform
to outline what they think future universal goals for sustainable development
should look like. The e-Inventory, which is available in three languages
(English, Spanish and French), also provides a searchable database to help
stakeholders – including governments and intergovernmental organisations – to
keep track of the wide range of proposals being developed on SDGs, and other
global goals for development being proposed as part of the global post-2015
development framework.
The platform is concentrated on
proposals that outline the thematic areas that a new global development
framework should address, or that go as far as to suggest specific goals,
targets and indicators. The SDGs e-Inventory is the only online platform that
enables stakeholders to directly upload their ideas and recommendations to a
database of proposals for future development goals. As well as being publically
available online, this data will be analysed and shared with governments,
stakeholders and relevant UN coordinating bodies, as the decision-making process
progresses.
Before the
OWG meetings resume again in November, the summer break provides an opportunity
for governments and stakeholders to reflect on the discussions and consultations
that have taken place so far. With this in mind, Stakeholder Forum has conducted
an initial stocktaking of the proposals housed in the e-Inventory (71 in total),
in order to provide a breakdown of the thematic areas that the proposals
address, as well as a snapshot of the individuals and organisations that have
put forward proposals on global goals.
Thematic breakdown of the proposals so
far
Top 10 proposed themes
The themes listed in the right-hand table shows overlap with
similar analysis conducted by the Overseas Development Institute, and
with the results of the UN’s MY World survey, both of which also
show employment, food, health, education, governance and water as top ten
priorities.
The other
three themes in the top ten – gender equality, Human Rights and social
protection – feature less highly in other analyses, but have been prominent
topics throughout the international policy discussions on the post-2015
development agenda. This is reflected in the three key reports to emerge from
the process so far. The High Level Panel, SDSN, and UN Global Compact reports all
put forward a specific goal on gender equality, and incorporate Human Rights and
social protection within their proposed goals and guiding principles.
A small number (10) of the
proposals that we looked at cited poverty eradication or sustainable development
as themes, however, we chose to exclude these topics from the thematic analysis
as they both represent integral overarching components of a future framework,
rather than individual themes that the framework will work to address. Poverty
eradication is the overall objective that the post-2015 development framework
aims to achieve and sustainable development is the means by which it seeks to
achieve it.
Which stakeholder groups
are participating?
 |
| Breakdown by stakeholder type of all proposals in the SDGs e-Inventory |
Just over a quarter of the
proposals we looked at came from intergovernmental organisations such as the
United Nations Development Program, the World Health Organization, UN entities
that relate specifically to post-2015 – including the UN System Task Team, the
Secretary-General’s High Level Panel and the Sustainable Development Solutions
Network – as well as a number of regional entities like the European Commission,
the African Development Bank and African Union Commission.
NGOs also account for around a
quarter of proposals, and include national, regional and international entities.
The majority of these organisations work on specific topics (like the Basic
Education Coalition, the Partnership for Sustainable Low Carbon Transport, and
World Vision), however there are also a small number which have a broader
thematic mandate (i.e. CONCORD European Task Force). Yet it is noteworthy that
there is a distinct lack of proposals specifically from environmental
organisations.
Governments account for 14% of
proposals, which include recommendations from individual nations like Columbia,
Japan, and Mongolia, as well as a number of intergovernmental groupings such as
the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding and the
Commonwealth Ministerial Working Group. This figure may well increase as the
intergovernmental discussions progress and Member State positions become more
developed.
Other stakeholder types
represented include Academia (11%) and Think Tanks (7%), with a small number of
Major Groups’
submissions accounting for the remainder of proposals. Among the Major Groups,
Children and Youth were the most strongly represented so far (6%), while
Farmers, Local Authorities and Indigenous Peoples were notably absent. We hope
that the recent translation of the SDGs e-Inventory interface into Spanish and
French will increase the accessibility of the tool and encourage submissions
from these and other under represented groups.
Regional
distribution
The large number of proposals by
intergovernmental organisations is also evident from the regional distribution,
which shows that more than half of the proposals in the e-Inventory are
classified as international. In addition to the UN bodies and international
financial institutions mentioned above, a number of international NGOs or NGO
networks – such as Save the Children and the Campaign for Peoples Goals for
Sustainable Development – as well as other global stakeholder coalitions, like
the International Trade Union Confederation, also fall under the international
category.
 |
| Distribution by region of all proposals in the SDGs e-Inventory |
30 percent of the
proposals emanate from Europe and North America, whereas Africa, Asia, Latin
America and the Caribbean, and Oceania combined only account for half this
number, revealing an asymmetry in the number of proposals from the Global North
and South. This disparity has been recognised by a number of observers of the
process (including here, here
and here). A lack of resources and capacity to translate
experiences into proposals for specific goals, targets and indicators is a
likely contributing factor. With this in mind, the SDGs e-Inventory aims to
support stakeholders to develop their own proposals by housing a range of
resources to provide information on the different processes working
towards the development of a post-2015 development framework, and the use of
targets and indicators to measure progress.
Stakeholder Forum is also
working closely with project partners in the regions currently underrepresented to address the
lack of participation from the Global South, and encourage further submissions
to the e-Inventory. As other civil society voices have observed, comprehensive
engagement of the world’s poorest and most marginalised groups at this stage of
the process will be vital to ensure that the new global goals are characterised
by greater ownership and empowerment than the preceding Millennium Development
Goals framework.
Next
Steps
The SDGs e-Inventory will
continue to solicit proposals from stakeholders as the intergovernmental process
to create a new set of global goals for sustainable development continues. In
September 2013, we will publish a more in-depth study of the proposals housed
within the e-Inventory to look in detail at the different goals, targets and
indicators being proposed across the thematic areas, as well as who is proposing
them.
After September, we will then publish updated analysis focusing on the themes of the four remaining OWG meetings scheduled to take place between November 2013 and February 2014. A full timeline for the e-Inventory project (including analysis outputs) is available here.
After September, we will then publish updated analysis focusing on the themes of the four remaining OWG meetings scheduled to take place between November 2013 and February 2014. A full timeline for the e-Inventory project (including analysis outputs) is available here.
The SDGs e-Inventory is open to
all stakeholders to publish their recommendations for future global goals.
Whether you are working on a particular theme, or looking at a range of issues
which span the post-2015 development agenda, we want to know your vision for the
new global goals framework. Submit your proposal here.
Amy Cutter and Jack Cornforth
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