IEF inputs for UN Open Working Group on SDGs

The Open Working Group (OWG) set up by the United Nations General Assembly to prepare proposals for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for post-2015 has completed a first round of meetings and issued a progress report at http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3238summaryallow…. Based on this work, its co-chairs have prepared a report on the focus areas for SDGs it has identified (http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3276focusareas.p…) for consideration at its meeting on 3-5 March 2014, at UN Headquarters in New York, USA.

This is the first of five scheduled "decision making" meetings of the group. The OWG was established through UNGA decision 67/555, and was called for in the outcome of the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20).

The OWG will be meeting with Major Groups on Wednesday 5 March to receive their comments on the 19 focus areas, which are:
1. Poverty eradication
2. Food security and nutrition
3. Health and population dynamics
4. Education
5. Gender Equality and women’s empowerment
6. Water and sanitation
7. Energy
8. Economic Growth
9. Industrialization
10. Infrastructure
11. Employment and decent work for all
12. Promoting Equality
13. Sustainable Cities and Settlements
14. Sustainable Consumption and Production
15. Climate
16. Marine Resources, oceans and seas
17. Ecosystems and biodiversity
18. Means of Implementation
19. Peaceful and non-violent societies, capable institutions

The International Environment Forum has submitted to the NGO Major Group coordinators the following suggestions for improvements in certain of the focus areas, in particular points that were missing:

1) POVERTY ERADICATION
• Empowering the poor to take charge of their own development

4) EDUCATION
• Education to ethics and values underlying sustainable development
• Education for rural living (not by encouraging rural to urban migration)

8) ECONOMIC GROWTH
Too much focus on economic growth. This could be balanced with:
• Preparing for prosperity without growth in wealthy countries
• Emphasizing growth in non-material domains such as knowledge, culture, science, and spirituality
• Regulation of the destabilizing effects of the international financial system
• Create an international regulatory framework for corporations with minimum social and environmental standards, ensuring that they pay their fair share of taxes and cannot achieve monopoly positions
• Replacing GDP measures of growth with broader measures of human well-being

9) INDUSTRIALISATION
• Creating science and technology capacity everywhere to bring technological innovation within reach of the poor, so that they can be producers and not just consumers of relevant technologies

11) EMPLOYMENT AND DECENT WORK FOR ALL
• Need more emphasis on support for transitioning jobs from unsustainable industries to the green economy

12) PROMOTING EQUALITY
• Reducing extremes of wealth along with poverty

13) SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SETTLEMENTS
Disappointed to see almost exclusive emphasis on urbanization and cities
Did not see:
• Community building for sustainability and solidarity in small and medium neighbourhoods and communities, and not just in cities

14) SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
Pleased to see education for sustainable lifestyles
Did not see:
• Reducing overconsumption and excessive marketing
• Ethical basis for sustainable lifestyles, being content with little

15) CLIMATE
• Development of a global mechanism for technology assessment and regulation of geoengineering

16) MARINE RESOURCES, OCEANS AND SEAS
• Strengthening global governance regimes for areas beyond national jurisdiction to build confidence in such mechanisms

17) ECOSYSTEMS AND BIODIVERSITY
• Creating global mechanisms to improve the equitable distribution and use of natural resources

19) PEACEFUL AND NON-VIOLENT SOCIETIES, CAPABLE INSTITUTIONS
• Mechanisms for ethical assessment of decision-making in governments and international institutions
• Giving youth a greater voice in preparing the future they want