Ecumenical Women at the United Nations

Given that the CSW58 priority theme is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls,” we want to make sure Ecumenical Women’s online community is kept up to date with developments in post-2015 dialogue, a process that will decide what follows the MDGs.  You can find basic info on the MDGs here and a summary of the post-2015 dialogue here.

Additionally, you may be aware that two weeks ago the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel (HLP) of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda launched a report entitled, A New Global Partnership: Eradicate poverty and transform economies through sustainable development, which can be found in all six official UN languages here.  Although reactions to the HLP’s report have been diverse and numerous, what follows are links and quotes from some of the most notable responses thus far.

Feminist Reflections: UN’s High Level Panel Report on Post-2015 Development Agenda

This response, of which EW member United Methodist Women is a signatory, can be found in its entirety here.  What follows is a block quote of the beginning of the response:

We appreciate the efforts undertaken in the HLP to establish the inter-linkages between social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, and welcome a:

• stand alone goal on “Empower girls and women and achieve gender equality”, and associated targets on eliminating violence, ending child marriage, equal rights for women to own and inherit property, and eliminate discrimination in political, economic and public life;
• specific target on sexual and reproductive health and rights under the “Ensure healthy lives” goal; and
• specific target on maternal mortality under the “Ensure healthy lives” goal.

However, and despite acknowledging the need for profound economic transformation, the report fails to:

• offer the necessary transformational building blocks for a new sustainable human development agenda;
• provide a transformational approach to address growing inequalities within and between countries and between women and men, as well as the root causes of poverty, including the growing feminization and intergenerational transfer of poverty;
• address the current macro-economic model which perpetuates poverty and inequality;
• include people who are discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity;
• link existing human rights accountability mechanisms at the regional and global levels in its accountability discussion; and
• address limited financing as a key barrier to advancing sustainable development, including women’s rights and gender equality.

Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance Press Release: “Aim Even Higher”

This press release from the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, to which many EW member organizations are also affiliated, can be found here.  What follows are a few select quotes:

• “While appreciating the major focus on ending extreme poverty in all its forms, an integrated approach to sustainable development, and the incorporation of human rights language and principles, EAA members and partners are concerned about “inadequate” language on HIV and AIDS which lacks ambition when the possibility of ending the pandemic is in sight.”
• “In the report’s support for moving to large-scale sustainable agriculture, there is also concern that despite talking about small-scale farmers, the emphasis is placed on technical innovations such as fertilizers rather than truly sustainable practices that use local, natural resources.”
• Rev. Phumzile Mabizela, Executive Director of INERELA+ (The International Network of People Living with or Personally Affected by HIV or AIDS), welcomed the fact that sexual and reproductive health is mentioned as a key target. “There was a big gap in the MDGs in not addressing violence against women, which is one of the root causes of HIV transmission,” she stated.
• “What is required now is further advocacy and engagement to ensure that the largely positive foundation that has been created by this report is built upon in a constructive fashion…”

Additional Reactions

• “The Right to Equality in Post-2015,” a speech by John Hendra, ASG and Deputy Executive Director at UN Women, can be found here.
• “Take concrete steps to equality,” from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, can be found here.
• “The good, the bad and the ugly in the long-awaited UN development report,” by Claire Melamed, The Guardian, can be found here.

The CSW58 priority theme is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls,” and while you can find more basic information on the MDGs here and a summary of the post-2015 dialogue here, we want to remind you that the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda is releasing their major report today at 15:00 EDT.

At 15:00 EDT you can view the report and executive summary on the High Level Panel’s website.  At that time you can also watch a webcast of the closed member states event that’s taking place this morning at 
http://webtv.un.org
.

Additionally, The World We Want platform will launch a page dedicated to the report’s release which can be found at: www.worldwewant2015.org/HLPREPORT.  On that page you’ll be able to find the following:

• Newly launched visualizations of all inputs to the World We Want platform
• MyWorld trends and outcomes
• Analysis of #post2015 Twitter conversation carried out by UN Global Pulse
• The 86 statements and letters formally submitted to the Post2015HLP by civil society organizations

There will also be a webcast stakeholder event tomorrow, 31 May at 10:00 EDT, moderated by Femi Oke, that you can watch at 
http://webtv.un.org
.

Be sure to continue following the conversation by using #Post2015HLP, @WorldWeWant2015, @unngls, @2015on and @myworld2015.

Finally, if you’re interested in further spreading the word about the High Level Panel report and the post-2015 dialogue, you can find a social media pack from the World We Want here.

As the CSW58 priority theme is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls,” Ecumenical Women is focusing over the next few months on educating our online community about the MDGs and the ongoing “post-2015 dialogue” on what will follow their completion.

While you can find more basic information on the MDGs here and a summary of the post-2015 dialogue here, we did want to provide two specific updates on what is happening within the UN system this week:

“Who Will Be Accountable?: Human Rights and the Post-2015 Development Agenda“
Earlier today the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a new publication discussing accountability toward ensuring human rights in the post-2015 development agenda.  As stated in the publication’s foreword:

“…some of the most celebrated Millennium Development Goals success stories since 2000 are now sites of mass protest decrying widespread deprivation, repression and inequalities masked by the narrow models of economic analysis that have characterized development approaches in the pre-2015 period. The message is clear: economic growth is not an adequate measure of development. Rather, equality matters, the environment matters and human rights matter. So do good governance and anti-corruption. The real test, to a growing global population demanding a life of dignity, is the degree to which they are able to enjoy freedom from fear and want, without discrimination.

If you’re interested in learning more about the proposed “human rights approach” to global development instead of the primarily economic approach of the MDGs, be sure to check out the publication here.

Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals
The third session of the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals opened today at UN headquarters in New York and will continue until this Friday, 24 May.  This afternoon’s subject is “Food Security & Nutrition, Sustainable Agriculture, Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought,” and the importance of educating women farmers on sustainable agriculture practice was just mentioned, for example.  You can watch a live webcast of the proceedings here.  The Open Working Group on the SDGs is a main aspect of the post-2015 dialogue.

As the CSW58 priority theme is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls,” Ecumenical Women is focusing over the next few months on educating our online community about the MDGs and ongoing dialogue about what will follow their completion.

While our previous post summarized the many different facets and timelines of post-2015, a discussion of how the dialogue has progressed thus far is also important.  In that regard, we hope you find the following three resources from diverse perspectives helpful:

• “Crowdsourcing the next development agenda,” by Olav Kjørven, UN assistant secretary-general and director of bureau for development policy at UN development programme (UNDP).  This piece, published in The Guardian on 9 May  discusses the use of new communication technologies to increase global participation in the post-2015 dialogue.

• “Civil society group challenge High Level Panel to abandon business as usual,” by Campaign for People’s Goals for Sustainable Development.  This update published on 6 May discusses the work of civil society organizations to ensure post-2015 dialogue is as open to grassroots participation as possible.

• “New global development agenda must have human rights at its core,” by Amnesty International.  This news piece published on 10 May reviews the dialogue and discusses the need to move away from an aid-based model of development towards a central focus on human rights.

Finally, this extremely helpful resource publish by UNDP on 20 March provides preliminary analysis on learning from the dialogue: ”The Global Conversation Begins.”

We hope you found this post helpful, and be sure to check back at Ecumenical Women frequently for resources on how each of the eight Millennium Development Goals relate to women and girls.

With this year’s Commission on the Status of Women over and its Agreed Conclusions (in English) now finalized, Ecumenical Women is beginning to prepare for next year’s commission, CSW58.  Although it is only in its initial planning stages, we do know that CSW58′s  priority theme will be “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls.”  With that priority theme in mind, Ecumenical Women will focus over the next few months on educating our online community about the MDGs and current conversations around what will follow their completion in a  post-2015 development agenda.

While there is a lot out there on the MDGs and the post-2015 development agenda, the following resources should provide you with a basic entry point for learning more about the topic.  Be sure to check back here on our site frequently for videos, graphics, reports and other resources that discuss the MDGs and the post-2015 development agenda in more detail, particularly how they relate to women and girls.

An introductory video on the MDGs and how they were formed:

As April 5th, 2013 marked the 1,000-day milestone until the 2015 target date to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the UN has launched the #MDGmomentum campaign.  For more info, click on the following infographic (and then share it with others on social media):

And finally, here are a few additional links to great resources on the MDGs and the post-2015 development agenda.  Some of these will be explored further in future posts:

• A Gateway to the UN System’s Work on the MDGs
• Millennium Campaign
• UN Women’s #MDGmomentum Page
• ONE’s MDG Page
• Beyond2015
• MY World (a basic global survey on your priorities for the post-2015 development agenda)
• The World We Want 2015 (a platform for more in-depth discussion on the post-2015 development agenda)