European Union

Post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations
Follow-up and review session

Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States
19 May 2015

delivered by
Mr. Gaspar Frontini
European Commission

Co-facilitators,
We wish to thank you again for the discussion paper you prepared. We believe that our statement yesterday and the further details we will cover today may help answering some of the questions you raised. We will make available the full statement later today.
As we stressed yesterday the monitoring, accountability and review framework for the post-2015 agenda should operate at local, national, regional and international level in an integrated manner.
National level
1. As we stressed yesterday accountability need to be pursued first and foremost at national level. National ownership and accountability will be of key importance for the post-2015 agenda and its implementation including through sustainable development strategies or other relevant frameworks at appropriate levels, which set out the national level of ambition and the measures that will be taken to achieve these. We believe it is important for all states to ensure inclusive and participatory systems for accountability are in place at national level to report on progress on all aspects of the post-2015 agenda with broad, multi-stakeholder participation. National parliaments, national and local governments, civil society, science and academia, as well as business actors should play central roles in this context and so do national supreme audit institutions and other independent oversight institutions.
2. A main operational commitment would be for all countries to prepare periodic publicly available reports on their implementation activities and results ideally based upon globally-harmonized standards and formats to facilitate feedback into the regional and global levels. States will also be required to provide statistical information to support global monitoring of progress on all aspects of the agenda.
Regional level
3. The regional level could provide particularly useful opportunities for peer review and learning, exchange of best practices, as well as contributing to global monitoring and review. Peer reviews could be prepared on the basis of national reports and other relevant information and analysis. Reviews at the regional level could also help to track progress on trans-boundary issues and regionally shared targets. The process would engage all stakeholders (civil society, relevant international and regional organisations including regional development banks and private sector) in reporting on their actions and commenting on state implementation. We can build on existing experiences that have been effective and successful, such as the African Peer Review Mechanism under NEPAD. It will also be important to foster transparency and cross-regional learning, interested countries, regional organizations (such as the AU and the EU), as well as relevant institutions including regional development banks and stakeholders from outside the region could be allowed to participate as observers.
4. The UN regional economic commissions could play a coordinating role, setting specific modalities for the peer reviews within agreed-upon guidelines, organising and hosting the reviews and ensuring input from all relevant sources and engagement from all relevant stakeholders. The UN RECs could also provide technical assistance at regional level for the statistical needs arising from the MAR framework. Their mandates and capacities should be mobilised to synthesise national inputs and regional trends and challenges for assessment at the global level. It will be crucial to build at regional level on existing processes to avoid proliferation of monitoring frameworks and to minimise the need for additional resources.
Global level
5. At the global level the purpose of the MAR framework is to assess the effectiveness of implementation measures to achieve the post 2015 agenda, to identify areas that are off-track and need additional efforts, as well as to make recommendations for further action and to identify new and emerging issues. Global progress should be assessed on the basis of a core set of harmonised global SDG indicators covering the whole agenda (including means of implementation), complemented by thematic global monitoring looking at specific aspects, information from regional reviews and national reports and existing relevant reports from UN agencies and other relevant institutions or bodies, as well as civil society reports. Review at the global level also provides a forum for accountability between all actors (governments, private sector, UN system, civil society etc.) and contributes to knowledge sharing, through participatory, multi-stakeholder, and universal review.

6. The primary forum at the global level is the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which will play a key oversight role in monitoring the implementation of the post-2015 agenda, including by making recommendations for further action at national, regional and global level. The HLPF provides a forum for monitoring progress by all concerned stakeholders, as the HLPF is open to all UN MS, as well as to major groups, NGOs, other relevant stakeholders and regional organisations. The HLPF should however not operate in a vacuum, but rather should make full use of existing information and processes tracking relevant commitments at global level including the DCF and MEAs, UN functional commissions and agencies as well as other international institutions and organisations such as the Word Bank, IMF and IOM. In this context it also provides a platform for partnerships and an important forum for monitoring progress by other stakeholders than Member States.
7. The quadrennial HLPF meeting under the auspices of the GA should conduct a comprehensive review of global progress, informed by the Global Sustainable Development Report and other relevant reports. This meeting of Heads of State/Government should serve to steer political leadership, maintain ambition and stimulate political commitment and action at all levels. The agenda should be focused, dynamic and action oriented in order to be attractive for Heads of State/Government participation. It should also consider emerging issues and future challenges to the achievement of the post 2015 agenda. As per Res 67/290 the outcome should be summarized in a concise negotiated political declaration to be submitted for the consideration of the Assembly.
8. The annual HLPF meeting under the auspices of ECOSOC could review global progress on the basis of all the information gathered at all levels, including but not limited to the global set of indicators, as well as other relevant reports and monitoring processes already in place for certain targets. This could take the form of streamlined, annual report, perhaps called the SDG report. The non-ministerial segment could prioritise thematic discussions (e.g. around cross-cutting themes), and ways of addressing off-track targets including through sharing best practices and experiences. The forum can also host voluntary country presentations building upon ECOSOC AMR. Ideally, at least one State from each regional group would volunteer to present the results of this exchange to other States during the HLPF, together with its plans for enhancing progress based on feedback and recommendations. The high level segment should propose recommendations to be taken up (at each level) for overcoming collective challenges and enhancing progress. The HLPF will need to make best use of the regional preparatory processes and existing international review processes such as ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) provided that it is strengthened. Stronger links should be established with the OECD DAC and the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation. Complementarity with the integration segment of ECOSOC and utilisation of the guidance of ECOSOC’s functional commissions will be important. The outcome is to be summarized in a negotiated ministerial political declaration for inclusion in the ECOSOC report to the General Assembly. It should also consider emerging issues and future challenges to the achievement of the post 2015 agenda ensuring that the targets remain ambitious and relevant.
9. The Global Sustainable Development Report should inform the 4 yearly HLPF sessions under the GA and monitor global progress drawing on a wide range of existing evidence from credible sources. The report should be an integrated policy-relevant assessment that gives an overview of achievements and challenges to implementation of global sustainable development commitments, and identifies and makes proposals for enhancing progress towards the post-2015 agenda. Without duplicating existing assessments, it should highlight inter-linkages, and also identify new and emerging issues which could have an impact on the achievement of the SDGs.
Involving non-state actors
10. Co-facilitators,
As we stressed yesterday it will be essential to assess the contribution of the private sector, including socially responsible enterprises and investors and public-private partnerships to the implementation of the agenda at all levels. This assessment will be facilitated by the uptake of voluntary corporate sustainability reporting which should be usefully supported and guided by the national policy framework and national systems for accountability. At the global level, this could include tracking progress in the uptake of standards and certification schemes, as well as corporate reporting processes. To ensure an effective contribution of the business sector, the UN Global Compact could prepare assessments for discussion together with relevant stakeholders at the HLPF sessions under ECOSOC, in line with the modalities of Resolution 67/290.
11. Foundations and philanthropic organisations (which operate internationally) may also be encouraged to present their contributions and assessment of progress by theme and by region. Such assessment could be presented and discussed within the HLPF meeting at ECOSOC level, building on the existing annual ECOSOC meeting on partnerships.
12. All UN system entities should be asked to include in their existing reporting an assessment of their respective contributions to the implementation of the agenda. On this basis the UNSG could prepare a UN system-wide assessment of progress in implementation by the UN system as well as gaps and challenges. Ongoing work to make the UN system more “fit for purpose” at headquarters as well as at country level is important for achieving the agenda.
Indicators and Data
13. We also believe that the development of informative indicators of progress availability and quality of data and the capacity for analysis will be crucial elements for the MAR framework. The EU supports selecting global indicators that can be used to track progress towards a number of different targets, making an integrated framework that embeds interlinkages, balances the three dimensions of sustainable development, and therefore reflects the transformative nature of the Open Working Group's proposal for goals and targets. This includes measurement of progress going beyond GDP. Attention should be paid to having appropriate indicators for MoI in the indicator framework developed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Statistical Commission.
14. Data should to the greatest extent possible be disaggregated by gender, age, income and other relevant grounds to ensure targets are met by all groups and no one is left behind and also to include a human rights dimension. Data and statistics should be collected and developed taking into account the experience and quality standards of official statistics as well as expert knowledge and possibilities offered by digital and geospatial data, technologies and in situ monitoring. The collection and analysis of large amounts of data (often referred to as Big Data) and the data revolution also open new avenues, increase transparency and public access and strengthen quality and comparability of national official statistics in line with the report of the UNSG Independent Expert Advisory group on Data Revolution.
15. In all these areas it will be crucial to strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems and institutions. All partners should reinforce capacity development and promote technical cooperation, making a particular effort in LDCs and fragile states. The EU and its Member States remain committed to improving and mainstreaming support for capacity development in all areas of the global partnership through a multi-stakeholder approach.