Agenda 2030
Deliberation on Sustainable Development Goals
Deliberation on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda are taking shape and the negotiations on scope and financing of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are becoming more concrete and contentious at the same time. Sustainability has been a concern for several decades and has gained greater importance in light of increasing climate warming and continued instabilities of the social and economic sectors at global levels. Two separate UN processes are underway to determine the SDG framework namely the HLPF (High Level Political Forum) and the OWG (Open Working Group) both working on defining and negotiating the world's Sustainable Development Goals. In addition,various stakeholder groups (NGOs, Business, Civil Society, Academic Institutions) and International Organisations have started their own discussions on what issues and priorities should be core features of the coming SDGs.
To be able to agree on a single integrated framework is critical to ensure successful progress towards the definition and implementation of the SDGs. Concrete goals need to be set at national, regional and global levels and concrete financial resources need to be committed for SDG implementation. The issues and themes that will have been identified as being top priorities will set the stage for policy choices concerning sustainable development goals and determine the world's progress.
CSEND, a think tank focusing on the development nexus of trade, poverty, employment and social equity, is contributing to these deliberation through its engagement in both the global, national and regional levels.
Raymond Saner, CSEND, Geneva, 2021
In addition to the inclusion of Voluntary National Reviews as part of the High-Level Political Forum’s (HLPF) review process, cities, region or provinces are now also partaking in this voluntary review process during the annual HLPF meetings in July at the UN headquarters. These subnational administrative units report on their own implementation and monitoring of the progress of the SDGs in the format of Voluntary Local Review (VLR). These VLR reports are available at the UN DESA SDG Knowledge Platforms.
One of (UNOSD’s (United Nations Office for Sustainable Development) flagship activities is the annual Executive Training Course for Policymakers on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Executive Training Course for Policymakers on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is intended to provide policymakers in central and subnational governments with the knowledge, skills and tools for implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at all levels of society.
The Executive Training Course (ETC) has as its general objective to build the knowledge, skills, mindsets, and general capacities of Member States for implementing sustainable development planning, policy making and policy shaping through an integrated approach. This year, the Executive Training Course for Policymakers on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will focus on the SDG 3 on good health and well-being, SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production, SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions, and SDG 17 on partnerships in the context of the current challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and will seek to identify potential solutions to support a swift recovery from the pandemic and accelerate the delivery of the SDGs in this Decade of Action.
“Intergenerational Dialogue” organized by Greycells and its partners with the support of the City of Geneva and the Foundation for Geneva on 7th July 2021 at the University of Geneva. The topic of the 2021 conference was “People, PLanet & Prosperity”. Raymond Saner’s presentation was “Prosperity and Economic Inequalities”
Raymond Saner’s presentation was “Prosperity and Economic Inequalities”
Yiu, L., Saner, R. & Bardy, R. (2020). Business Ethics and Leadership, Volume 4, Issue 4, 2020 ISSN (online) – 2520-6311; ISSN (print) – 2520-6761
Maintaining and expanding public goods is synonymous to promoting sustainable development but discussions are needed to clarify how policies need to be coordinated to enable collective action on public goods. Collective action for Public Goods will only be successful if all who partake in such actions can gain complementary benefits that would be either more costly or impossible to achieve without the collective effort. Such complementary benefits are possible provided all stakeholders contributing to the public good of social peace and social cohesion cooperate with each other and preserve this and other public goods be they citizens, civil society organizations, all public authorities and all business firms. This concerted effort for a good cause can certainly be coined “ethics in action”.
This article describes the UN Agencies that are based in Geneva as well as the major organisations which represent civil society also based in Geneva. As second step, the authors give an example of the complexity and importance of UN decision making processes exemplified with the attempts to create a universal agreement on the protection of older persons. Finally, a description of the Sustainable Development Goals is listed with possible interlinkages with the divisions of IAAP.
Raymond Saner, Lichia Yiu and Melanie Nguyen, (2019)
Abstract
This article discusses how monitoring can be used to support the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a special focus on measuring their attainment through citizen participation. The article argues why monitoring must be an integral part of managing the SDG implementation process and shows that the measurement of SDG attainment remains vague and incomplete. Countries are supposed to review their progress in SDG implementation every four years, but the method of reviewing is left open even though the first review is scheduled to take place in 2019. In addition, and even more urgent, is the inadequate definition of monitoring methods that countries are supposed to deploy. This article studies the various options currently available to conduct the four-year review and breaks down monitoring into two types: micro-monitoring and macro-monitoring, both of which are necessary to ensure effective and efficient monitoring in achieving