Moving towards 2015— Live Facebook chat with UN experts

DESA's Development Policy and Analysis Division organized a Facebook chat on the post-2015 development agenda which took place on 27 November from 9.00 - 11.00 am. Several UN experts, including Rob Vos (Director, DESA DPAD), Diana Alarcon ( DESA DPAD), Friedrich Soltau (DESA DSD), and Jose Dallo and Gina Lucarelli from the UNDP Bureau of Development Policy, participated in the chat and answered more than a hundred questions from Facebook and Twitter users.

Questions from people participating in the chat focused on specific topics such as female empowerment and gender, education, people with disabilities, inequalities and hunger and nutrition amongst others. Quite a number of users inquired about progress on the MDGs and how this experience would inform the post-2015 deliberations. There were various questions asking about issues related to sustainability in the post-2015 framework and the links between the SDGs and the post-2015 process. Other questions asked specifically about the implementation of the development agenda and how to increase monitoring and accountability. Many users congratulated DESA on the initiative and appreciated the opportunity to speak to UN experts directly, even though some users displayed a concern of how the findings from the chat and similar online consultations will feed into the broader process. There was a strong emphasis on the need for an open and bottom-up approach with broad involvement from all stakeholders, especially the poorest and most marginalized.

Towards a New Generation of Development Goals–A day of informal discussions

On 26 November 2012 the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, together with the Club de Madrid and the Permanent Missions of Peru, France and Mexico, organized a day of informal discussions on a new generation of development goals. The day was divided into three panels with participants from the United Nations, civil society, the private sector, academia and Member States as well as representatives from the High-level Panel. During the first panel on 'Guiding Principles and Values for a Joint MDG/SDG Agenda', ASG Ms. Shamshad Akhtar contributed to the discussion as one of the panellists.

DPAD's Director Mr. Rob Vos participated in the second panel on 'Main Elements of a New Development Paradigm'. During his presentation Mr. Vos outlined the need to build an agenda that moves beyond business as usual and drives transformative change. He suggested to place more emphasis on the enabling conditions which would help to guide the achievement of future goals without becoming a set of policy prescriptions. Moreover, enablers can also help to identify and address the interlinkages between the different themes that will be part of the post-2015 agenda. The example of the recent multiple crises show how various issues are interlinked and addressing one (say food security) requires attention to others as well (such as food trade, agricultural subsidies, technology transfer and the stability of food prices).