UNF Alert 12

May Monitor: FfD Revised Draft, Post-2015 Follow up/Review, Targets, Indicators

FfD Negotiations on the Revised Draft

FfD negotiations during the month of May offered delegates an initial opportunity to react to the co-chairs’ revised draft of the Addis outcome document. Member states completed a first reading of the draft text and submitted their proposed edits, and current negotiations are based off of a compilation of those edits. The co-chairs are working with delegates to find bridge proposals on areas of disagreement. Negotiations on FfD continued this week through June 5, and will pick up again for a final week, June 15-19. The co-facilitators hope to have finalized the text by June 19. So far, the following have been among the most contentious issues in the debate:

Changing Global Context: Donor governments wanted to include stronger language on how the global landscape has changed and argue that the lines between north and south are less and less clear, while the G77 wanted to focus on the many challenges that developing countries still face.

CBDR vs Universality: Many developing countries requested language linking CBDR to the global partnership, emphasizing North-South Cooperation at the core, and that private sector and South-South Cooperation as complementary sources. Others emphasized universality and shared responsibility and did not support North-South categorization.

50% ODA to LDCs: Some member states recognized the special circumstances of LDCs but as of mid-May, some did not support an explicit numerical target for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) aside from what has already been agreed. Others pointed out the declining share of ODA for Middle Income Countries (MICs) where many of the world’s poor live.
Social Compact and Essential Public Services: There was wide support for the idea of providing essential public services to help to finish the job on the MDG; however, most governments were reluctant to support spending targets and timelines.

Climate finance: Developing countries emphasized that climate finance should be “new and additional” to ODA. The G77, for example, did not support building climate and disaster resilience into development financing.

Fossil fuel subsidies, Carbon tax: The European Union called for stronger language on subsidies and for a carbon tax. The US supported internalizing the cost of carbon but not an explicit call for a tax. Some G77 countries preferred an emphasis on agricultural subsidies rather than fossil fuel subsidies.

Gender empowerment: The European Union and others called for stronger language on women’s empowerment, gender-sensitive budgeting, and references to women’s human rights. Some G77 members were not comfortable with references to inheritance and women’s rights to own land.

Technology: Developing countries continued to prioritize the importance of technology facilitation for sustainable development, while donors called to caveat technology language by adding references to WTO, TRIPs, and “on mutually agreed terms”. Many countries looked forward to the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on the proposed Technology Bank for the LDCs.

Infrastructure: There was broad support for “closing the infrastructure gap”, but donor countries generally resisted calls for a new infrastructure platform, preferring to strengthen and build on existing initiatives, such as those of the G20, World Bank, and other regional development banks.

Fragile states: Some countries called for more explicit references to the needs of fragile states, while others, including the G77, said there was not a clear definition for “fragile states” and preferred the language, “countries in conflict and post-conflict situations.”

May Post-2015 Negotiations: Follow up and Review

The main topic for the May negotiations (May 18-22) was follow up and review of the post-2015 process, and the co-facilitators issued a discussion paper ahead of time for consideration. There was broad support for a set of principles that should underpin the process: national ownership, inclusiveness, universality, flexibility to evolve, transparency, and a process that is voluntary and “lean, not mean,” as one delegate put it. Rather than a process that punishes or puts undue reporting burdens on government ministries that are already stretched thin, governments said they should be able to draw on existing processes wherever possible. Many agreed that the review should be informed by timely and reliable data, and developing countries welcomed capacity-building support for their national statistical offices.

Many delegates emphasized the importance of a bottom-up approach for monitoring, drawing on the experiences of local authorities and civil society and funneling those up to the national, regional and global levels. Others noted that we need to get the incentives right so that governments will participate at a high-level – for example, if governments perceive the review process as a constructive forum for peer learning and sharing of best practices, high-level participation is more likely.

There was also some divergence over how and whether Addis follow up should be merged with post-2015 follow up. Some thought the two processes should remain separate but complementary, so as not to overburden the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) – the forum mandated by Rio for post-2015 review; others argued that post-2015 and FfD outcomes should be reviewed together in the spirit of coherence. Many believed that the outcome document should only address key principles of the HLPF, and leave details of the architecture to be fleshed out later, to leave room for flexibility.

Way forward: Targets, Indicators, Declaration

Because May was the last post-2015 session dedicated to a specific component of the agenda, member states had an opportunity to discuss the way forward on the other aspects of the agenda. The remaining three sessions will focus on negotiating the outcome document. The zero draft is expected around June 1. The co-chairs hope to have the outcome document finalized by the end of July, leaving sufficient time for Capitals to be consulted ahead of its adoption in September.

Targets – Many developing countries called to retain the OWG document in its entirety to preserve its delicate political balance. Some delegations supported the technically revised proposal from the co-chairs, while others suggested further tweaks to the targets, and others were comfortable editing x’s only. Member state views on the targets proposal remained quite divergent, so it is not yet clear how the co-chairs will resolve this issue in the zero draft.

Indicators – The Chair of the UN Statistical Commission, John Pullinger, briefed member states on the status of indicators and on the upcoming meeting of the Inter-Agency Expert Group (IAEG), June 1-2. The first IAEG meeting will set up a process for the development of the indicator framework. Mr. Pullinger reiterated that the IAEG would not seek to reintroduce any new or contentious issues, and would remain true to the targets in the OWG report. He said that others will be invited to participate as relevant – including experts from think tanks and civil society. The meeting will also be webcast.

Declaration – Most member states agreed that the Declaration for the outcome document should be visionary, inspiring, and a global call to action. One delegate said that it should be written in “non-UN language”, since this is the “cover to our book – and we want people to read it”. Canada and the US suggested that we may want to think of another title for the “Post-2015 Development Agenda”.

Themes for the September Summit Dialogues

Member states agreed on themes for the six interactive dialogues at the September Summit. They are:

Ending poverty and hunger
Tackling inequalities, empowering women and girls, and leaving no one behind
Fostering sustainable economic growth, transformation and promoting sustainable consumption and production
Protecting our planet and combatting climate change
Building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions to achieve sustainable development
Delivering on a revitalized global partnership

May Must-Reads

The ONE Campaign has just published: The DATA Report 2015: Putting the Poorest First, which suggests key components of a mutual accountability pact that could be a game-changer for Addis Ababa. These components include: 1) Minimum spending levels on essential services; 2) Increased domestic government revenues; 3) Increased official ODA to 0.7% of GDP, with half allocated to LDCs; 4) Investments in agriculture, infrastructure, energy and technology; and 5) Delivery of a data revolution.
Development Initiatives recently published Getting poverty to zero: financing for social protection in least developed countries, a report analyzing social protection financing in LDCs and two financing flows that can play a key role in financing social protection: domestic public finance and international public finance in the form of official development assistance (ODA).
After 18 months of consultation, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has synthesized the input of over 500 organizations in: Indicators and a Monitoring Framework for Sustainable Development Goals: Launching a data revolution for the SDGs. The report proposes 100 Global Monitoring Indicators as well as suggestions for Complementary National Indicators.
Derek Osborn, Amy Cutter and Farooq Ullah of Stakeholder Forum argue that due to national circumstances, varying degrees of attention and effort will be needed to implement different goals and targets by developed countries in their report: Universal Sustainable Development Goals: Understanding the Transformational Challenge for Developed Countries. The report summarizes the findings of a study that aimed to rank the SDGs in order of relevance for developed countries based on three criteria: applicability, implementability, and transformational impact.
H.E. Dr. Palitha Kohona, former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN, discusses the importance of south-south cooperation in his op-ed for Inter Press Service: South-South Cooperation Vital for Sustainable Development.
John Podesta recently made remarks at the Sustainable Energy for All Ministerial Policy Dialogue, emphasizing that development and climate change are integral parts of a single strategy. The UN Foundation’s Reid Detchon summarizes Podesta’s remarks in his blog post.

Vaughn Graham blogs for Devex about opportunities for international finance in Toward Addis and a long, hot summer ahead, highlighting two major concerns for the world: 1) The crackdown on multinational corporation tax avoidance; and 2) Ensuring success at July’s FfD Conference in Addis.
The Post-2015 Data Test has published the results from its work in Turkey in the report Measuring Sustainable Development to 2030: A view from Turkey, highlighting key challenges for implementation and measurement of a universal framework in a country-specific setting. The report presents an overview of Turkey’s development challenges, takes stock of Turkey’s national statistical system and data availability, and serves as a case study for how a universal agenda can be applied to other MICs.

Look-Ahead

June 1 – 2: First Meeting of the Interagency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (UNHQ, New York)

June 1 – 5: Financing for Development (FfD) additional session (UNHQ, New York)

June 3 – 5: World Economic Forum on Africa (Cape Town, South Africa)

June 7 – 8: G7 Summit (Bavaria, Germany)

June 15 – 19: Financing for Development (FfD) third (and final) drafting session (UNHQ, New York)

June 22 – 25: Post-2015 Intergovernmental Negotiations on the outcome document (UNHQ, New York)

June 26 – July 8: HLPF meeting: Strengthening Integration, Implementation and Review (UNHQ, New York)

June 29: PGA’s High-Level Event on Climate Change (UNHQ, New York)