Eyes and ears
at the UN

Civil Society

Round Up

Round Up #3. CSO Participation at the UN: Perspectives on CSO Engagement in UN Processes

This GPW Round Up #3, CSO Participation at the UN: Perspectives on CSO Engagement in UN Processes, highlights some insights, analyses, commentary and advocacy regarding civil society organizations engaging in UN multilateral processses. From the Member States to the UN Secretary-General, CSOs are frequently exalted as an integral part of multilateral policy-making processes; yet, whether their calls and analyses are genuinely heeded is up for debate. Some Member States and CSOs have called for improvements in CSO participation, supported by recommendations from experts on reforms to CSO engagement. Read more

People-centered Multilateralism

ONLINE | Voluntary National Reports on the 2030 Agenda: What can we learn for a post-pandemic world?

The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) will discuss with Civil Society Reflection Group their key findings of its analysis of 2020 VNRs, highlighting the disconnect between the ambition of the agenda and the attention given to the transformative policies in such areas as productive capacities, pandemic preparedness, inequalities and sustainable consumption and production. Read more

People-centered Multilateralism, Publications

Launch of the global civil society report Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2020

The COVID-19 crisis and the worldwide measures to tackle it have deeply affected communities, societies and economies around the globe. But calls for “building back better” by just pushing the reset button will not change the game. We need structural changes in societies and economies that ensure the primacy of human rights, gender justice and sustainability.
This is the key message of the 2020 edition of the Spotlight Report on Sustainable Development “Shifting policies for a systemic change.” It is published by a broad range of civil society organizations today – on the eve of the Global Action Week for the SDGs and three days before UN’s 75th (virtual) anniversary summit. Read more

Briefings, Economic justice

The HLPF review has to match the ambition of the 2030 Agenda

The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs have also captured the attention of many parts of the UN system, which are slowly restructuring their work plans towards their achievement. This fact can be seen in negotiations on UN development system reform and country-level reporting; on the push for a Data Revolution as well as Information and Technology. The VNRs are being analysed by civil society groups as well as the UN Committee on Development Policy to see the extent to which they are focused on leaving no one behind, and tackling the furthest behind first, as well as the extent to which they address trade-offs between the goals and especially spillover effects from global policies that impede their achievement. Read more

Articles, Economic justice, Equitable Global Governance & UN reform

Civil Society FfD Group’s Statement to the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Meeting on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

This document has been collectively developed by the Civil Society Financing for Development (FfD) Group, a very broad platform of civil society organizations, networks and federations from around the world, including the Women’s Working Group on FfD. The Group followed closely the FfD process since its origins, facilitated civil society’s contribution to the Third International Conference on FfD, and continues to provide a facilitation mechanism for the collective expression of civil society in the FfD Follow-up process. While the group is diverse, and positions might differ on specific issues, this document expresses the elements of common concern. Read more…

Articles, Economic justice

Civil Society engages during Financing for Development Forum

The ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development (FfD Forum), meeting in New York from May 22 to 25, is dedicated to reviewing not only the fulfillment of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and its predecessors (the 2002 Monterrey Consensus and the 2008 Doha Declaration on Financing for Development), but also the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and feeding its results into the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). Civil Society is engaging in the forum in several ways, with interventions, side-events and written comments. Read more…

Briefings, People-centered Multilateralism

The HLPF 2016: First global meeting on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs

The United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) met in New York from 11 to 20 July 2016. It is the central UN body addressing sustainable development, and its chief task is to monitor the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The HLPF is still in a trial phase. Whether it can justifiably claim a central role in global sustainability policy will only be revealed over the next few years. Read more…

Articles, Sustainable development, social justice and sustainable peace

Size matters: Corporations and small business in sustainable development

At the opening of the United Nations hearings with business and civil society, Social Watch coordinator Roberto Bissio defends Sustainable Development Goals as expression of a new paradigm. For the SDGs to bare fruit, the power of the biggest 200 corporations, with combined sales that are bigger than the total economies of 180 countries, needs to be harnessed. The UN should not tarnish its image associating its programs with big tax evaders or endorsing private-public partnerships that are exclusive, untransparent and too frequently associated with corruption. A binding legal instrument for business and human rights, while disliked by business leaders, might introduce a predictable framework that ultimately benefits the small and medium entrepreneurs that create most of the jobs in times of crisis.

Read more / Spanish version

Economic justice, People-centered Multilateralism, Publications

New Discussion Paper asks: Leave no-one out of the Post-2015 Agenda – particularly not the rich

The Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectivestoday launches its latest Discussion Paper. “Goals for the Rich – Indispensable for a Universal Post-2015 Agenda” deals with the question of how a fair sharing of costs, responsibilities and opportunities among and within countries can be achieved in formulating and implementing a Post-2015 Sustainability Agenda. Read more…

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