The sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly will convene at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 17 September. The President of the GA will host a Special Event towards achieving the MDGs on 25 September.

Following the opening on 17 September, the General Assembly will hold the High-level Meeting on the Realization of the Millennium Development Goals and Other Internationally Agreed Development Goals for Persons with Disabilities on Monday, 23 September. This will be followed by the general debate of Heads of State and Government from 24 September to 2 October. During the weeks of the general debate, a series of high-level events will be held.

On Wednesday, 25 September, the President-Elect of the 68th session of the General Assembly, Ambassador John W. Ashe, will host the Special Event to follow up efforts made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Other high-level meetings include the High-level Political Forum on Tuesday, 24 September, the High-level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament on Thursday, 26 September, and the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development on Thursday, 3, and Friday, 4 October.

For more information: United Nations General Assembly

Special Event towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals

The Special Event of the President of the General Assembly, which will be convened on Wednesday, 25 September at 9:00 am – 6:30 PM at the Trusteeship Council Chamber as a one-day event, is a critical milestone as we approach the target date 2015 for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It provides an opportunity for Member States to renew their commitments to the Goals, to intensify all efforts for their achievement by 2015, and to chart the way forward. To this end, the Special Event will focus on gaps and weaknesses, and the acceleration of the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, as well as looking forward to the post-2015 Development Agenda. The Special Event is expected to conclude with a short outcome document.

Several high-level side events are being organized around the Special Event. Their main objective is to promote the replication and scaling up of approaches which have worked to accelerate MDG implementation. In addition, they will also provide a space for collective thinking on the key elements of a post-2015 development agenda. On September 23, for example, the Secretary-General will host a high-level forum on “MDG Success: Accelerating action and partnering for impact”. The forum will focus on concrete examples of scaling up success and identifying further opportunities. The emphasis will be on the “how” – bringing together examples from partnerships across the spectrum of the MDGs and the Secretary-General’s multi-stakeholder initiatives and movements, such as Every Woman Every Child, Sustainable Energy for All, Global Education First, Zero Hunger Challenge, the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, and the Call to Action on Sanitation.

For further details on the Special Event, please visit:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/specialevent.shtml and http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/67/issues/mdgs/mdgs.shtml.

For information on related events being organized by Member States, the United Nations system and civil society, please visit: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/proposed-side-events-2013-special-event.pdf.

A side event on “Effectiveness and accountability in the post-2015 development agenda – lessons from the MDG experience” is organized in New York on 25 September.

Building on the lessons learnt from the Millennium Development Goals, the Government of Germany and DESA are advancing this discussion in light of the post-2015 development agenda. Effective monitoring and inclusive accountability mechanisms are essential aspects of development cooperation and the global partnership for development. They help to ensure effectiveness and the sustainability of development results. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have galvanized the world behind a globally shared development agenda and around a set of eight development priorities. As the MDGs are moving towards their end date of 2015, the international community must work towards a global development agenda beyond 2015. To put the world on a sustainable development path, such an agenda must not only continue to address the priorities of the MDGs but must also address emerging issues, mostly around environmental sustainability.

Effective monitoring and inclusive accountability mechanisms at all levels will be critical for the successful implementation of the post-2015 development agenda. This is a key lesson which the international community has learned from the MDG experience.

Advancing the dialogue on accountability and monitoring

Drawing upon its extensive work on mutual accountability and monitoring, both at the country and international level, the United Nations Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) is aiming to kick start an in-depth discussion on a post-2015 monitoring and accountability framework. It will do with its DCF High-level Symposium in Berlin, Germany.  Set for March 2014, the symposium will analyze and explore potential characteristics of and principles for monitoring and accountability to support the post-2015 development agenda.

Preparing for the Germany High-Level Symposium

In preparation for the symposium, the Government of Germany and UNDESA are organizing a luncheon side event on “Effectiveness and accountability in the post-2015 development agenda- lessons from the MDG experience” under the auspices of ECOSOC’s Development Cooperation Forum. The side event will take place at United Nations Headquarters on 25 September 2013 from 1:15 PM to 2:45 PM. The interactive event will provide an occasion for panelists and participants to begin to identify elements of an effective and inclusive monitoring and accountability framework for the post-2015 development agenda.

For further information:  http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/dcf/index.shtml