This article was originally published on 22 August 2014 and updated on 26 August 2014
Image: Past President Alice Wells and President Ann Garvie at NGO/DPI
A Soroptimist International delegation is attending the
65th Annual United Nations Conference for Non-Governmental Organizations this week to push for a Post-2015 development agenda that meets the needs of women
and girls. International President Ann
Garvie and Immediate Past President Alice Wells will be leading our team of UN
Reps and SI of the Americas Federation representatives in
New York from 27-29 August.
"It has been
three years since DPI has held a conference, so we are all very excited about
the opportunity to directly engage with other representatives of civil society
in this all important forum”, explains SI’s Head of Programme and Advocacy,
Reilly Dempsey. “The conference is
also returning to NYC for the first time in many years, so we are pleased to
welcome our NYC UN Reps to SI’s official delegation. Delegates will be
working very hard on the outcome document, similar to CSW, to ensure that the
voices of women and girls are represented in a progressive and positive
way."
The Conference theme is “2015 and Beyond: Our Action Agenda”; participants will
develop an “Action Agenda” to mobilize messaging, advocacy strategies,
partnerships and accountability frameworks in the lead up to inter-governmental negotiations for the adoption of the Post-2015 development
agenda.
Beyond the Millennium Development Goals
“The MDGs changed what
we did and how we did it. It is time to break ground again.The post-2015 agenda
must act as a catalyst to change the way we approach development.” SI statement on the Post-2015 Agenda
With less than five hundred days until the deadline for the
Millennium Development Goals in 2015, the UN is leading a global conversation
about what should replace them: the so-called Post-2015 agenda, focussing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs will take over where the MDGs leave off. The new goals
and objectives will be the focus of international development work, bringing
with it awareness, funding, programming, and attention. It is therefore
absolutely critical to ensure that the most pressing issues are addressed, and
in the best possible way. For SI, this means paying very close attention to how
gender is tackled in the goals, objectives, targets, and indicators.
Soroptimist
International has been actively contributing to the debate about the Post-2015
agenda, including at the Commission
on the Status of Women (CSW58) in March and the annual
meeting of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) last month, and SI
delegates at this year’s DPI/NGO Conference will be working with partners to help to
influence the Conference Outcome Document.This outcome document will form a concerted response from NGOs to the draft Sustainable Development Goals.
Update 26th August 2014 – SI welcomes
latest draft of outcome document
SI is very pleased that the most recent draft of the declaration that
will be agreed at the UN DPI / NGO Conference incorporates many of our key
asks. The first draft of this document was released in July and SI responded
with several comments and suggestions. Many of our points have been addressed
in the latest version, issued over the weekend.
SI is very pleased to note that the following primary asks have been
included:
- In the context of climate change, SI requested that the following
language be included: “Serious related issues that undermine development efforts are: lack of
women’s access to resources, capabilities, and decisions…” We also recommend moving this
line to a section on cross-cutting issues. This has been taken up in the section on Gender,
where the current document reads: “Generally missing from the SDGs are the interlinkages
of gender equality and women and girls’ rights to substantive economic and
environmental issues, such as energy (Goal 7), infrastructure (Goal 9), sustainable consumption and production (Goal
12), oceans (Goal 14), biodiversity (Goal 15) and peaceful and inclusive societies (Goal 16);
and while women are mentioned in the context of LDCs and capacity building for climate
change planning, the recognition of differentiated impacts and contributions in climate
change is absent.” - SI requested that gender
responsive budgeting and audits were explicitly mentioned: “Mandate gender-responsive budgeting/audits in the financing of the
SDGs” This ask has been successful and the current outcome document requests that the
following target be instituted under the proposed SDG on gender equality: “by 2030, secure significant financial public resources across all
sectors to ensure all national and sectoral plans and policies achieve gender equality, the empowerment
of women and that the realisation and enjoyment of womens’ and girls’ human rights
are fully costed and adequately resourced, including through domestic resource
mobilisation, progressive taxation, gender-responsive budgeting, allocation and increased priority
to gender equality in official development assistance.” - SI requested that all indicators be disaggregated by sex. The current
outcome document calls for disaggregated data in several places (LDCs, health,
urbanisation), as well as in the overarching section on monitoring and accountability: “Human
rights-based accountability is multifaceted. It requires public participation in the design and
implementation of programs to address and monitor state obligations and commitments. It also
requires that states collect data that is disaggregated and publicly accessible, and for
states to use that data to consistently report to accessible and effective monitoring mechanisms.
Finally, it requires that individuals are able to be volunteers and engage in support of
accountability and monitoring and to have access to effective and meaningful remedies at
the national, regional, and international level when there are violations of
individuals’ rights.” Read in the context of human rights accountability, the data would be disaggregated
by sex, but SI would like to see this strengthened by specifying disaggregation by sex.
Nevertheless we are pleased that the importance of disaggregated data is so prevalent in the
current draft. - SI requested that the following be inserted into the section on gender:
“Fully engage men and boys in efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination against
women”. We are pleased that the current draft requests the following target to be included in
the SDGs: “by 2030 fully engage men and boys to take responsibility to end discrimination and
violence against women and girls, achieve gender equality and realize women and girls’
human rights.” - SI asked that, in the context of education, the following language be
included: “Safe and accessible education for girls and women at all ages must be a primary
goal in the Post 2015 Development Agenda.” The current draft of the SDGs includes language
around gender sensitive and safe learning environments, and this particular target is
explicitly upheld by the current DPI outcome document: “The target on safe and non-violent
learning environments is particularly important.”
Profile Raising and Workshops
As well as submitting comments and suggestions on drafts for
the final outcome document and ensuring that SI’s key asks are shared at
roundtables, workshops and plenary sessions, SI’s delegates in New York will be
hosting an exhibit table at the Conference, showing SI films, sharing literature
and talking to other participants about SI’s work.
SI is also co-sponsoring two workshops:
- Media Strategies to Foster
Sustainable Development: Examples from Africa, Asia, South America, Caribbean, and
North America – highlighting innovative, replicable media
strategies in developing countries to promote sustainable development and
social change. Speakers will describe projects focused on environment, health,
gender equality, human rights,and violence prevention.
- Toward Inclusion and a
Human Rights Framework for the MDGs and a Global Perspective of the Role of
Civil Society in the Context of Gender Inequalities – stressing the inclusion of all groups,
emphasizing women and the human rights framework, in accomplishing the MDGs and a
post-2015 agenda.
About NGO DPI
This film from 2010 introduces the UN DPI/NGO conference and features Immediate Past President Alice Wells, then President-Elect, at 2:40 and again towards the end, sharing Soroptimist International’s vision. IPP Alice will be jointly leading this year’s delegation with President Ann Garvie.
More information
SI Post-2015 Statement and Key Asks
Image: SI delegates at the last UN DPI/NGO Conference in 2011
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