Major Group: Children & Youth
Introduction:
January 21st 2015, New York
STATEMENT
United Nations Major Group for Children & Youth Intergovernmental Negotiation on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Interactive Session with Major Groups and Other Stakeholders
These conversations are determining the future, my future, our future. This is simply too important to be done behind closed doors. This is not an option. It is imperative that Major Groups and stakeholders, especially young people in all their diversity to continue to have a voice in this process.
Our 2 Priorities:
Our priorities are- Effectively integrating climate change, environmental and justice elements into the agenda, and committing to realising girls and women’s human rights while meaningfully mainstreaming gender equality throughout. What does this look like?
Declaration:
For the declaration to be relevant at all, it should clearly and categorically state that we need to leave behind the concept of blind growth, and must remain within planetary boundaries, while recognizing climate change and its adverse affects on all dimensions of sustainable development.
It should make clear that the agenda, it’s implementation, and accountability mechanisms must be firmly grounded in human rights, and that people of all ages and abilities, everywhere, matter equally.
Targets and Indicators:
As many governments have said, it is not the time to regress. A bold and forward-looking agenda must build on existing human rights commitments, with robust and innovative indicators.
The indications will have to operationalize and explicitly measure the progress on keeping ourselves within planetary boundaries especially in goal 8 and goal 9 where ‘sustainable’ is used to qualify ‘growth’ and ‘industrialization’. We are unhappy with the use of ‘growth’ in the first place.
Indicators that are disaggregated should take into account measuring ‘youth friendliness’ and ‘equitable’ while determining access to health care services, livelihoods, fulfillment of rights and legal institutions.
Means of Implementation:
To actually deliver sustainable development, the focus needs to be on transforming economic systems that treat the environment as subservient to the economy, and perpetuate the imbalance of wealth and power within and between countries that worsen poverty and inequality.
We need to generate new liquidity and create a macro economic environment that appropriately allocates risks to unsustainable ecological footprints.
Follow up and review:
No partnership or commitment, even voluntary is above being held accountable through an institutionalized mechanism at the highest level. Partnerships should be assessed to ascertain if they actually deliver sustainable development or strengthen special interests.
Lastly, the inheritors and recipients of this agenda will have to play a meaningful role in its monitoring and evaluation at all levels, or it will be an empty shell. We are already part of the process, and ask for more support to let us play an even more meaningful role in this post 2015 journey.
January 21st 2015, New York
STATEMENT
United Nations Major Group for Children & Youth Intergovernmental Negotiation on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Interactive Session with Major Groups and Other Stakeholders
These conversations are determining the future, my future, our future. This is simply too important to be done behind closed doors. This is not an option. It is imperative that Major Groups and stakeholders, especially young people in all their diversity to continue to have a voice in this process.
Our 2 Priorities:
Our priorities are- Effectively integrating climate change, environmental and justice elements into the agenda, and committing to realising girls and women’s human rights while meaningfully mainstreaming gender equality throughout. What does this look like?
Declaration:
For the declaration to be relevant at all, it should clearly and categorically state that we need to leave behind the concept of blind growth, and must remain within planetary boundaries, while recognizing climate change and its adverse affects on all dimensions of sustainable development.
It should make clear that the agenda, it’s implementation, and accountability mechanisms must be firmly grounded in human rights, and that people of all ages and abilities, everywhere, matter equally.
Targets and Indicators:
As many governments have said, it is not the time to regress. A bold and forward-looking agenda must build on existing human rights commitments, with robust and innovative indicators.
The indications will have to operationalize and explicitly measure the progress on keeping ourselves within planetary boundaries especially in goal 8 and goal 9 where ‘sustainable’ is used to qualify ‘growth’ and ‘industrialization’. We are unhappy with the use of ‘growth’ in the first place.
Indicators that are disaggregated should take into account measuring ‘youth friendliness’ and ‘equitable’ while determining access to health care services, livelihoods, fulfillment of rights and legal institutions.
Means of Implementation:
To actually deliver sustainable development, the focus needs to be on transforming economic systems that treat the environment as subservient to the economy, and perpetuate the imbalance of wealth and power within and between countries that worsen poverty and inequality.
We need to generate new liquidity and create a macro economic environment that appropriately allocates risks to unsustainable ecological footprints.
Follow up and review:
No partnership or commitment, even voluntary is above being held accountable through an institutionalized mechanism at the highest level. Partnerships should be assessed to ascertain if they actually deliver sustainable development or strengthen special interests.
Lastly, the inheritors and recipients of this agenda will have to play a meaningful role in its monitoring and evaluation at all levels, or it will be an empty shell. We are already part of the process, and ask for more support to let us play an even more meaningful role in this post 2015 journey.