Statement from Together 2030
Delivered by Andrew Griffiths
Friday, 15 July 2016
HLPF session: Regional Experiences
Thank you Mr President. Together 2030 welcomes the opportunity to input into this important discussion. Regional fora play a critical role in the implementation, follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda. There have been some good examples of engaging civil society at a regional level, but it is clear that more needs to be done.
We want to make three points from our experience in over 80 countries: firstly, that openness to civil society engagement in regional fora needs to be prioritise and at the level of the HLPF. Secondly, regional fora effectively sit in no-man’s land between national implementation and international follow up and review – so, lessons shared at the regional level needs to trickle down to the national level and across to other regional fora. Thirdly, our experience shows that language is a huge issue for effective civil society participation- more needs to be done to ensure language is not a barrier.
Thank you
