WUNRN
Website of the Post-2015 Development Agenda Process
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015
UN
Secretary-General’s Post-2015 Development Agenda Synthesis Report
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5527SR_advance%20unedited_final.pdf
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Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development – APWLD
APWLD Formal Response to the
UN Secretary-General Synthesis Report on Post-2015 Development Agenda
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and
Development (APWLD) is a feminist regional network with 189 members in 25
countries in Asia and the Pacific. Our members – consisting of lawyers,
academics and rural, indigenous, migrant women organisation – work to empower
women in the region to use research, training, advocacy and activism to claim
and strengthen women’s human rights as enshrined in UN international human
rights instruments. We are the chair of the Asia-Pacific Regional CSO Engagement
Mechanism (AP-RCEM), as well as the focal point of the Asia-Pacific women’s
constituency. Further, we are the Women’s Major Group (WMG) Organising Partner
for Asia and Pacific, and act as the WMG focal point for the ICESDF
process.
On December 4, the UN Secretary-General (SG)
released a Synthesis Report on the Post 2015 Development Agenda, which is a key
input into the negotiation of the post-2015 development agenda, which will
continue from January to July 2015. The report, entitled “The Road to Dignity
by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet”, is
“a universal call to action to transform the world beyond 2015”. The 45-page
report consists of 6 sections, with the main section on Framing the New Agenda,
which includes six essential elements for delivering on the SDGs, as well as
sections on means of implementation of the agenda, which includes financing,
technology and capacity building, and delivering the agenda as a shared
responsibility through partnership.
APWLD welcomes the SG’s synthesis report’s
clear emphasis on the universal principles of human rights, including the right
to development and recognising the free, prior and informed consent of
indigenous peoples; common but differentiated responsibilities; and an aim to
achieve climate justice. It rightly emphasises the current challenge of gross
inequality and climate change that the world currently faces, and the need for
a bold commitment to a transformative development agenda. Although it includes
some recommendations that are more progressive than other key inputs into the
post-2015 development agenda, particularly on the issues of trade, financing
and accountability, the report fails to challenge the neoliberal framework and
the imperative of economic growth and does not ultimately commit to dismantling
the rules and systems that enable the gross inequalities that threaten our
future.
Absence of UN-NGLS Regional Recommendations:
The
Secretary-General’s Synthesis Report acknowledged the consultation processes
from a wide range of stakeholders in the Post-2015 negotiations. It referenced
all but one of the formal inputs in the intergovernmental process and attempted
to identify commonalities amongst them. However, it failed to cite the UN-NGLS
report entitled, “Advancing Regional Recommendations on the Post-2015
Development Agenda.” This was a significant synthesis of a four-month
consultation process with 120 regional civil society networks and was conducted
in partnership with the Post-2015 Development Planning Team of the Executive
Office of the Secretary General. The report was formally tabled with the
General Assembly and the Open Working Group process soon after its publication,
and it therefore cannot be omitted from the Synthesis Report. We reaffirm the
significance of the consultations and the recommendations made in the UN-NGLS
report which were collected directly from civil society. It is important that
the Secretary-General recognize and remain accountable to the processes that
have made space for valuable inputs from Major Groups and civil society
stakeholders.
Clustering Elements of
the SDGs
Our
largest concern about the report is the proposal to frame the SDGs as six
essential elements, which includes: 1) Dignity – to end poverty and inequality,
2) People – to ensure healthy lives, knowledge, and the inclusion of
women and children, 3) Prosperity – to grow a strong, inclusive and
transformative economy, 4) Planet – to protect our ecosystem for all our
societies and our children, 5) Justice – to promote a safe and peaceful
societies and strong institutions, and 6) Partnership – to catalyse the
global solidarity for sustainable development.
The
report does not provide any clarity on the link between the OWG’s 17
Sustainable Development Goals to the six essential elements, or how the OWG’s
17 goals will be maintained or collapsed into the 6 elements. This risks
undermining some of the goals that have been consistently pushed by G77+China
(a grouping of over 130 countries) and civil society, including Goal 10 –
Reduce inequality within and among nations, and Goal 17 - Means of
Implementation. It also diminishes the importance of the stand-alone gender
goal and instead provides cursory reference to women and groups them with
children within the People element.
APWLD
together with the Women’s Major Group has advocated that gender equality and
women’s rights should be clearly articulated in a dedicated stand-alone goal,
as well as being integrated throughout the other goals. We fear the
clustering will further weaken the language of women’s rights. Without these
goals, the SDGs will not be genuinely transformative and meaningful.
Although
there are considerable shortcomings within the OWG’s Outcome Document and the
SDGs, we believe it provided the breadth of goals that reflects the current
challenges we need to address, and should be used as the main basis of the next
negotiations. APWLD firmly rejects any attempt to streamline, cluster, or
otherwise reduce the range of current goals.
Inequalities between
and within countries
In the Synthesis Report, the issue of
inequality is largely addressed under the element of Dignity – to end poverty
and inequality. We welcome the emphasis of the report in terms of inequalities
among a wide range of social groups, and we particularly welcome the reference
of prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples. However, the section lacks
the requisite emphasis and analysis of gross inequalities of wealth, power and
resources between countries and within countries.
While the report has specifically stated that
income inequality is one of the most visible aspects of inequality and is a
challenge that the whole world must address, APWLD and other CSOs have
consistently argued that income inequality is not a sufficient indicator of
inequitable development. We have advocated for a wealth distribution indicator
(using for example the Palma ratio), progressive taxation, and redistributive
financial policies. Moreover, ability to access land is increasingly recognised
as strongly correlated to poverty, and as a much a more relevant indicator of
poverty than dollars per day.
The
Synthesis Report incorporates some good recommendations on the issues of
financing, taxation, and reform of global trade frameworks in the later section
of means of implementation and financing. However, we urge that those
recommendations should also be articulated in this section as part of the frame
for the negotiated goals and targets.
Decent work and Living Wage
We
are alarmed to see the UN SG’s Synthesis Report dilute the commitment to the
Decent Work agenda through the reference only to decent jobs. Decent Work
provides a broader framework, a recognised international standard and is used
consistently in the OWG negotiations, as well being clearly articulated in Goal
8 of the SDGs.
According to the
International Labor Organisation, the Decent Work Agenda should have four
strategic objectives, with gender equality as a cross-cutting objective. These
objectives are: creating jobs (generating opportunities for investment,
entrepreneurship, skills development, job creation and sustainable
livelihoods); guaranteeing rights at work (including workers’ representation
and participation); extending social protection (guaranteeing a minimum living
wage, safe working conditions, and essential social security to all in need)
and promoting social dialogue (through workers’ and employers' organizations’
effective participation).[1]
The synthesis report
focuses on access to employment but does not refer to the essential elements of
rights at work nor social dialogue. A commitment to rights at work should also
address the right to equal pay for work of equal value, maternity and parental
rights, employment security, living wages amongst others.
On
the positive side, we strongly commend the reference to a living wage in the
Synthesis Report. A living wage is a necessary element to reduce inequality. It
should be institutionalized in order to support the ability of family to live
with dignity, particularly with respect to workers in the informal sector,
women workers, domestic workers and migrant workers.
Access and Control over Land Resources
APWLD has stressed the importance of guaranteeing
access to and control over land, including through the elimination of
land-grabbing, for poverty reduction and food sovereignty. Our key concern is
that while the document includes a reference to the issue of displacement, it
fails to recognise or make any references to the escalating trend of
land-grabbing in developing countries. In fact, throughout the document, there
are only two reference in relation to land, which are on sustainable management
of marine and terrestrial ecosystem and land use (para and on equal access of
women and girls to financial resources, and the right to own land other assets
(para 69).
While we welcome the inclusion of rights to
secure access to land for women and girls, the formulation of the language on
land in the document is weaker than OWG Outcome Document, as it doesn’t address
nor reflect the negative impact of inheritance, succession, customary and/or
family laws and marriage related-practices to women’s right to land.
Moreover, we have not
confined our advocacy to demands that women have equal access to the
increasingly small percentage of land available to poor people. Instead
indicators that measure how much land is accessible and controlled by women and
men over time, the ability to track land control and land-grabbing, and how
much land is available to small land owners needs to be included.
Climate Change
The SG synthesis report has rightly focused on climate
change as a central issue. We welcome the specific reference to climate justice
and the inclusion of common but differentiated responsibilities, and the need
to take actions towards sustainable production and consumption. We feel that
the narrative on climate change needs to specifically articulate the need for
system change, by committing to a radical and urgent transition from
extractive, profit-based economies to people-centered models that are just,
equitable, gender-sensitive and locally driven.
Many CSOs and a many Small Island Development States
(SIDS) have argued that the target to limit global warming below 2 degrees
Celsius – which was referred to in the SG Synthesis Report - is outdated. We
need to commit to a comprehensive, ambitious and binding new climate agreement
which aims to limit global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial
levels if we want to survive the worst impacts of climate change. The plight of
developing countries (particularly LDCs and SIDs) should be a priority in the
new agreement, while developed countries must recognise their obligation to
support adaptation measures for developing countries through finance,
technology transfer, capacity building and the removal of patent and
intellectual property restrictions. Mitigation should not include
commercialising the climate through mechanisms that have failed to reduce
emissions including REDD, REDD+ and “climate smart” agriculture among others.
We note that the SG Synthesis Report makes several
references to environmental stewardship, but it will only be meaningful when
traditional knowledge and practices of indigenous and rural women are retained
and promoted, food sovereignty is institutionalised in laws and policies, and
decision-making processes at all levels are led by those most affected by the
impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, particularly women.
Peace at home, in the community and
internationally
We welcome the reference to zero tolerance of
violence against and exploitation of women and girls (para 69), ending child,
early, forced marriage and also the reference to ensuring meaningful
participation and voice of women, LGBT groups, indigenous peoples (para 78). We
note that the next negotiations will need to provide stronger targets, means of
implementation and accountability mechanisms that would require government to
act.
We are disappointed to see no reference to the
urgent need to reduce militarism, reducing weapons globally and to tax the arm
trade which can provide both revenue and promote peace. Military spending is
only mentioned once in the document in the section on technology, and only to
be compared to spending on research. There is no recognition of the
considerable impact of human rights violations due to militarism.
Voice
APWLD
has advocated for increasing women’s decision making at all levels; at home, in
the community, nationally, regionally and internationally. We recognize the
statement in paragraph 68 to “accommodate the voices of women, youth and
minorities, seek the prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples…” in
regards to ending poverty and fighting inequalities. Paragraph 78 also stresses
the importance of an enabling environment under the rule of law for the “free,
active and meaningful engagement of civil society and advocates reflecting the
voices of women...” However, while the Report acknowledges the value of women’s
voices, it falls significantly short of the demands of civil society and
language already put forth in the OWG outcome document. Goals 5 and Goal 16 in
the OWG document call for women’s effective participation and equal
opportunities for leadership at all levels and aspects of decision making. On
the other hand, the Secretary General’s Synthesis Report does not distinguish
between the need for women’s leadership. Ideally it would reaffirm our call,
one that has already been broadly recognized in the OWG process, for women’s
participation and leadership through democratic and localized decision
making.
Means of implementation
and Financing
APWLD advocates for the need to urgently address
the asymmetrical international economic order that has historically stripped
developing countries of their resources and limited their domestic policy space
to implement development and human-rights-oriented decisions. This is apparent
in the functioning of international trade, capital markets, and international
financial institutions and agencies. In general, the Synthesis Report provides
stronger and more equitable elements than both the OWG and ICESDF report.
·
We
welcome the recognition of the need for ‘urgent action to
correct the inequities of international system to the disadvantage of
developing countries, a more equitable multilateral trading system, fair
representation of emerging and developing countries in international financial
and economic decision making, better regulation in the international financial
and monetary system, and sustainable debt solutions, and the need to remedy the
policy incoherence between current modes of international governance in matters
of trade, finance, and investments; and norms and standards for labour, the
environment, human rights, equality and sustainability. This should act as
basis principle for the next negotiations of Post 2015 Development Agenda.
·
We also welcome the specific call for developed countries to
meet the 0.7% target and agree to concrete timetables to meet ODA commitments,
and also to ensure that the proportion of ODA going to LDCs does not decline
but is increased, be better targeted, more efficient, more transparent and that
leverages additional resources (para 79). However, we regretted that the SG
synthesis report does not explicitly prohibit the attachment of harmful
conditionalities to ODA and other forms of financing by international financial
institutions and nor does it provide for binding obligations of states to meet
their commitments.
·
We are pleased to see that report highlights the need to
predicate private sector involvement on social/environmental accountability,
and has taken up our call to ensure investment policies are in line with
international standards on business and human rights, core labour standards of
the ILO, and the United Nations environmental standards. We found that Para 105
is bolder than anything in the OWG, SDGs or ICESDF. However, it is alarming
that the report still emphasises ‘the urgent action to mobilise, redirect and
unlock the transformative power of trillions of dollars of private resources to
deliver on sustainable development objectives, including the need for foreign
direct investment (FDI) in critical sectors, such as sustainable energy,
infrastructure and transportation (para 92). Again, governments are encouraged
to provide incentive structures to attract investments. This, we fear will
further justify the liberalization of investment in land and resources,
promoting large-scale land purchases or leases, escalating land grabbing and
violence, and further impoverishing rural, indigenous women. The elevated role
of the private sector in development cooperation undermines the principle of
international solidarity and a global partnership for development, and also
further strengthens the dominance and corporate interest in the formulation of
policies and operation of global markets.
·
APWLD together with the WMG reiterates our position in the
response to ICESDF report on the need to fundamentally re-examine the role,
accountability and governance of International Financial Institutions. We
regret that the report instead only recommend for IFI to ‘consider establishing
a process’ to examine the role, scale and functioning of multilateral and
regional development finance institutions to make them more responsive to the
sustainable development agenda. This call is weak, considering the historical
harmful role, policies and practices of IFI – particularly in developing
countries.
·
We support the call to consider establishing an
intergovernmental committee on tax cooperation under UN auspices. This was a
critical suggestion in the earlier discussion in ICESDF which was unfortunately
dropped in the final report. We also appreciate the strong encouragement to
implement tax reforms, including financial transaction taxes, which is
necessary for improving domestic resource mobilization for sustainable
development. However, key recommendations from civil society for global
corporate taxation and taxation on harmful industries are not recognized in the
report. Recommendations still fall short of addressing the redistribution of
wealth and full realization of human rights.
·
The report rightfully recognizes the rights of migrants.
Importantly, paragraph 117 under the section of “Financing our Future” calls
for “reduce costs on the transfer of remittances,” in a way that is fully
consistent with the rights of migrants. This is a critical recommendation for
moving away from remittance-driven development that only increases the
vulnerability of migrants to violations of their rights and systematizes labor
exports. Lubricating the flow of remittances does not address the root causes
of forced migration and vulnerable employment. Priority should instead be given
to realizing decent work and living wages
in sending countries.
Partnership
One of
the most alarming aspects of the SDGs is the lack of a commitment to a renewed
and strengthened global partnership for development, at the heart of which is
cooperation between developed and developing country governments. Goal 8 of the
MDGs specifically called for a Global Partnership for Development, whereas the
SDGs buries calls to enhance the global partnership below the heading
“multi-stakeholder partnerships” (Goal 17.16) and dangerously encourages the
promotion of other kinds of partnership.
The SG
Synthesis Report clearly articulates the need to revitalize global partnership
for sustainable development based on the Millennium Declaration and Monterrey
and Johannesburg commitments. We also welcome the call to anchor a global
partnership in the principle of international solidarity that recognises that
governments are the principal duty-bearers of human rights obligations and that
development assistance is essentially a fulfillment of the duty of States to
assist other States to fulfill global human rights obligations and structural,
globalised causes of violations and poverty. The principle of international
solidarity was nowhere to be found in the OWG document.
However,
we remain cautious about the emphasis on inclusive and transformative partnership(s)
as a key feature of implementation at all level, by the inclusion and full
participation of multi-stakeholders. APWLD and WMG has previously flagged
the “multi-stakeholder” approach as a problematic model that treats all
actors, including civil society and the private sector, as equal and sharing a
common interest. While we are certainly in favour of the inclusion of
marginalised groups and the principle of gender equality in all consultations,
multi-stakeholder approaches often obscure the disparities in power and
conflicting goals among actors (including among the private sector, e.g.
large corporations have overwhelming dominated spaces for the private
sector at the exclusion of small and medium-sized enterprises). For example, a
model that claims to give space in consultations to the private sector and
civil society does not acknowledge the considerable political influence that
large corporations already wield, nor the fact that corporations have acted in
the past to actively undermine the advocacy of civil society. Similarly it
doesn’t recognize that corporations are legally bound to act in the interests
of share-holders while civil society is primarily bound to act in the interests
of constituents.
Accountability
We
reaffirm our position that an accountability framework in the Post-2015 agenda
should aim to provide the enabling conditions required for development rights
to be enjoyed, particularly by the most marginalized. Those enabling
environments have been identified in other processes, and therefore we welcome
the report’s call for full consistency with current political commitments and
existing obligations under international law (paragraph 60). This was also
reiterated in paragraph 105 which recognizes the need to predicate private
sector involvement on social and environmental accountability by citing the
UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, core labour standards of
the ILO and the UN’s environmental standards. We appreciate this bold
commitment which has exceeded anything outlined in the SDGs or ICESDF reports.
However,
the Synthesis Report is inconsistent in its elaboration of an accountability
framework. We are concerned about the report’s recommendation for “mutual
accountability” that promotes “public-private- people partnerships” as detailed
in paragraph 81. This idea was also reinforced in paragraph 146 which called
for “a new paradigm of accountability,” which ceases to recognise the
historical responsibility of the North and shrouds the disproportion of power
and conflicting goals among actors outlined in this section.
The report acknowledges the need for stronger accountability and calls for a universal periodic review that is “voluntary, state-led, participatory, evidence-based, and multi-tiered process to monitor progress”. The voluntary nature and nationally focused lens of this review will replicate the existing failures of states to implement existing human rights obligations at both national levels and, critically, the obligations to regulate the private sector and the extra-territorial obligations of states.
It
is surprising that the report failed to refer to the resolution of the Human
Rights Council to produce a binding treaty to regulate Trans-National
Corporations. As states have recognized the importance of new systems to hold
the private sector to account, a new development agenda must include that
obligation and institution in its work.
We
remain concerned about the rhetorical nature of both the OWG and Synthesis
report and reiterate that transparent, regulatory, democratic institutions are
required to ensure the aspirations of the new development agenda are delivered.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/newsmakers.asp?NewsID=113
Interview with Amina J. Mohammed, Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on
Post-2015 Development Planning
Amina J. Mohammed, Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on
Post-2015 Development Planning. UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz
4 December 2014
– Amina J. Mohammed has served since June 2012 as the Special Adviser to
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Post-2015 Development Planning. The Nigerian
national brings to the position more than 30 years of experience as a
development practitioner in the public and private sectors, as well as civil
society.
Among her previous posts, Ms. Mohammed was Senior Special
Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the
UN-backed effort to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, promote education,
especially for girls, fight disease and protect the environment, all by 2015.
Next September, world leaders are expected to agree on
new agenda for the next 15 years that tackles the unfinished business of the
MDGs. The “post-2015 development agenda”, with 17 proposed sustainable
development goals, is expected to be centred on people and the planet,
underpinned by human rights and supported by global partnerships and a
universal agreement on tackling climate change.
Ms. Mohammed spoke with the UN News Centre ahead
of the release of the Secretary-General’s synthesis report – The Road to Dignity by 2030 – which will guide Member States
in their negotiations leading up to next year’s UN Special Summit on
Sustainable Development, which will adopt the post-2015 development agenda.
...by 2030 we can end poverty, we can transform lives and
we can find ways to protect the planet while doing that.
UN News Centre: Can you briefly explain what the
Secretary-General’s Synthesis Report is and how it came about?
Amina J. Mohammed: The report has come about, where we started with
deliberations of Member States coming out of Rio [2012 UN Conference on
Sustainable Development], the open working group was in place, the
financing for development experts group was also in place, and Member States
brought up a resolution that asked for the Secretary-General to put together a
synthesis report that would bring together all these strands in a way that
would inform the intergovernmental negotiations when they begin in 2015.
UN News Centre: What will the report contain?
Amina J. Mohammed: The report brings together, first of all, a narrative
that really does set the scene for the world that we’re in today. It looks at
all the elements that we have learned from in the MDGs, the gaps that there
are, what we need for a transformative agenda, and how Rio has come about. So
it sets the scene for that. It then responds to that scene with a framework
that has a plan for us to develop the new set of goals.
[The report] also then looks at the means of
implementation to resource that agenda, the different options that you would
have for it. And it ends with an accountability framework – an accountability
framework that looks at a shared responsibility to deliver on this agenda. How
do we rise to that occasion having set a new and ambitious transformative
universal agenda? How do we then respond to that?
UN News Centre: You’ve said that we’ve got to do things
differently when it comes to the sustainable development goals. What do you
mean by that?
Amina J. Mohammed: Well it’s such a bigger agenda. We have learned from the
MDGs that we did succeed in doing many things. We certainly took people out of
poverty. We attended to trying to save many women’s lives in delivering. And we
looked at the agenda for children and children’s lives were bettered; many got
routine immunization; and certainly more survived after childbirth.
But what we did learn was that this way of addressing the
huge, complex challenges that we have was not sustainable. And so the
sustainable development agenda really looks at a broader and deeper response to
the challenges that we have. And it takes together the economic, the social and
the environmental dimensions that we have.
I think that’s important because we’re talking about a
universal agenda where we’re going to leave no one behind. It’s not doing
things by halves or by three-quarters, it’s about everyone mattering. And it is
very much about our economies growing, and we’ve seen them grow with people. We
know the challenges of climate change… and really responding to that. How do we
protect our ecosystems and ensure that the planet is in a state where we can
all live in harmony?
So that means we need a whole load more approaches to
respond to with this. We certainly need stronger institutions to respond to
that. And it is about a global partnership that is very much different than
we’ve had before. It’s not the usual development paradigm where we’ve been
[only] North and South. It is very much about integration, it’s about everyone
and it is about leadership that will carry that forward.
UN News Centre: The post-2015 process has tried to be
open and transparent like never before. What do most people want and how do you
ensure that everyone’s voices are heard?
Amina J. Mohammed: I think that since we embarked on this journey coming
out of Rio, Member States have actually provided an unprecedented process where
we have brought voices in into the negotiations, into the discussions that have
formed and shaped the open working group and its outcome with the 17 goals and
many targets.
But it has also been one that’s given us the opportunity
to hear voices from the country level, around the world, the different regions,
with various platforms. We also had the platform where young people were able
to engage with the My World Survey that asked them about the world that they
wanted and what their priorities were.
It also involved many other platforms that catalysed
around this whole process – from academia to civil society…business…
parliamentarians – [and] got so much more involved and came into this space. I
think that this has been for us an enrichment of the discussion. But it’s also
given ownership and it’s given a sense of we know what we need to do, and the
how of it is so much closer now because we’re bringing New York closer to the
needs of those at the local level.
UN News Centre: What is the biggest take-away from this
report?
Amina J. Mohammed: I think the biggest take-away from this report is
probably the hope and the opportunity that we have ahead of us, and this is a
generation that can do what we need to do to achieve many of the challenges
that we see ahead of us. So if there is anything that we’re taking away from
this report it is that by 2030 we can end poverty, we can transform lives and
we can find ways to protect the planet while doing that.
UN News Centre: And what are the next steps?
Amina J. Mohammed: The next steps will be, we hope, that we are able to
present this to the Member States in a way that helps them refine the
intergovernmental process, bring more clarity, maintain the ambition and
momentum and to begin to close the gap more. What we do want to see is that by
the time we come to September, October next year and these goals and the
framework is approved, the transition to the new set of goals will be one that
takes the unfinished business of the MDGs to greater heights and broadens it…
that we can hit the ground running, that we can build on the data revolution that
we’ve talked about and see that as a tool that is already in place with a
decent set of indicators to help us begin to do that. That the UN itself, as it
sets this agenda, is equipped with the necessary skills and tools that it needs
to facilitate many developing countries that won’t have the capacities to
engage in such a complex momentum.
UN News Centre: Is there a particular development issue
that you feel strongly about?
Amina J. Mohammed: I think the biggest challenge I feel very strongly about
is that when we have put all this in place, will we have the leadership. And
once we have the leadership… the capacity, the human capacity in robust
institutions to deliver on it. Where is all that going to come from? How are we
really going to help partnerships become more cohesive and work together,
pulling in the same direction to achieve what basically we’re all about, and
that’s finding a place for our humanity again… reclaiming the values that I
think that we’ve lost along the way where we have a world that is full of
challenges and conflict and every day of the week there’s not much good news.
It’s very complex. I come out of a country where, at
least for years, we’ve seen that against all odds, we were able to do good
things, with a good plan, with good intentions, with leadership that backed its
players to try to do what we did with the MDGs and then spending our debt
relief and making a difference in people’s lives. This is so much bigger and it
really does need a global partnership to do it. So while we have things that
need to be done at the country level, we also need our partners at the global
level to really get behind this.
And that’s going to require quite a lot of courage,
because to say you don’t want to leave anyone behind is to look to see who is
the most vulnerable and smallest member of the family and what is it that we’re
going to have to do to ensure that they’re not left behind, because that will
be the litmus test and success of what we do.
UN News Centre: You’ve worked on development issues in
various capacities. What do you think is the biggest obstacle to ending
poverty?
Amina J. Mohammed: I think for us it’s probably addressing inequalities… the
fact that we still have the deepening of inequalities around the world within
countries, across borders, is of great concern. And that really needs to be
addressed with good policies, policies again that leadership can take, that
plans can be implemented with, that investments are targeted properly.
And I think many of the inequalities that we see – access
to whatever it is, whether it is income or health or schools, services – all of
those will depend really on the quality of the capacities we have and the
institutions that are available to us. And I think that’s going to be a big
challenge and that’s something that we have to start working on from now if
we’re to embrace this much bigger agenda.
UN News Centre: As an African woman, in which areas do
you think the continent has made the most progress and where does it need to do
more?
Amina J. Mohammed: I think it’s made an enormous progress in its economies,
in terms of really trying to turn them around. We’ve seen growth across the
board… we’ve also seen a new sense of urgency to take the helm of affairs and
to talk about transformation, and not to talk about ad hoc success in terms of
development. And I think that that’s a positive sign. It’s about Africa trying
to rise and trying to take its own direction, its own future, its own destiny
in its hands.
And we’ve seen some women at the helm of affairs that
have helped us to do this. And certainly for the continent to take up a common
position on Africa that has really informed the debate here on the post-2015
development agenda, that was in the hands and the leadership of a woman – Dr.
[Nkosazana Dlamini] Zuma, the AU Chairperson, has really brought along leaders
in Africa to say what we want to look at is, yes 15 years and how we engaged
with the global agenda, but we want to go further. What’s the next 50 years
about for us, and how are we going to engage with that. So I think we can see
leadership. We can see Africa trying to take its own future, its destiny, in
its own hands.
But it leaves so much more for us to do. I think if we
want to see real change, then the scale at which we have to apply the things
that we’re doing in a much more integrated way will be mammoth. We need to see
many more women in leadership roles. But we also need to see that, when we look
at most of the statistics and the data that we have, women are half of the
population everywhere. And to say that the human resource – and we believe it –
is really the opportunity and potential of nations. Not to invest in half of
that potential, of course we will never achieve the ambitions that we have and
that we need. So I think that’s going to be important.
I think it’s going to be important for us to have a
watchword that says we will not exclude anyone from this, that everyone has a
role to play and what we have to do is define that properly and give people
their strengths, so that as we come together in a team, our diversities in
Africa, within countries, are our strengths and not our weaknesses.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UN
Secretary-General’s Post-2015 Development Agenda Synthesis Report – December
2014
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5527SR_advance%20unedited_final.pdf