Civil society & the SDGs – notes & next steps from #HLPF

At last month´s UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, over 2,500 representatives from civil society joined governments to review implementation efforts for the Sustainable Development Goals. The global forum resulted in a Ministerial Declaration, which Action for Sustainable Development produced a response. 5 key points from our statement:

  • The Leave No One Behind commitment received little emphasis from the 44 countries presenting voluntary reports on goal progress at the national level;
  • Civil society rights are being violated in a majority of UN member states, limiting the capacity of citizens and community organisations to help implement the goals;
  • The relationship between the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Change Agreement needs to be further incorporated into the reporting framework of the High Level Political Forum;
  • The United Nations needs to do more to compare national progress reports between member states and the independent assessments from civil society;
  • Civil society still often lacks a formal role in goal implementation and monitoring

On the sidelines of the High Level Political Forum, Action for Sustainable Development convened a two day workshop with over 150 civil society representatives to assess the state of goal progress and cross-sector partnerships at the national level. National civil society reports were presented from Argentina, Brazil, India, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, The Philippines and Zimbabwe (see reports, presentations and meeting notes). These national reports provided an opportunity to identify trends in the implementation of the goals as well as determine discrepancies between government and civil society assessments of goal progress.

The meeting was also used do some programmatic planning for the network´s four working groups: Monitoring & Accountability, Policy & Advocacy, Public Mobilisation, Innovative Solutions. Each Working Group adopted work plans to ensure the full potential of the volunteer hours that have been pledged towards the achievement of 8 core deliverables.

Please support these activities by volunteering your time and expertise. We will be reviewing progress and planning more joint actions at the following global meetings over the coming months:

DATE EVENT/MILESTONE WHERE ACTION4SD ENGAGEMENT
12-21 August UNLEASH SDGs Innovation Lab Copenhagen, Denmark A group of Action4SD members are being sponsored to attend this global meeting to design implementation programs for the SDGs
22-24 September Second anniversary of adoption of the SDGs Worldwide Action4SD will be organising public mobilisation activities in communities around the world
6-17 November Climate Change Negotiations (COP23) Bonn, Germany Action4SD will be at the negotiations to focus on strengthening policy coherence and program implementation between the SDGs and Paris Climate Agreement
4-8 December International Civil Society Week Suva, Fiji Action4SD will be doing programmatic planning for 2018 with civil society from the pacific and around the world

 

Can´t join us in person? Please take a couple minutes to complete one of our online consultations and tell us about which civil society SDG initiatives are happening in your country.

In solidarity and shared aspirations, 

Action for Sustainable Development

More info at www.action4sd.org | Twitter @Action4SD | Email info@action4sd.org