The process of reaching some consensus on new human development goals is well underway at the UN. In addressing the question, "What will our goals be after 2015?", the Millenium Development Goals are seen as being successful in moving us to where we are today. Now the focus is shifting into the work of defining new Sustainable Development Goals. This presents considerable challenges and opportunities for cooperation between different sectors of global society: governments, people's organizations, business etc.
There has been a pronounced measure of goodwill throughout the process of defining the new Sustainable Development Goals: the UN has invited civil society to use the creative imagination in visualizing what a better world looks like, asking, "Please share with us what you see." Impressions that have been gathered from all around the world have been published on the internet (MY World) for everyone to see, and have been condensed into policy briefs for consideration by governments at the UN.
These policy briefs are being discussed during sessions, currently in progress, of the General Assembly Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals. Civil society recommendations are being presented and discussed during these sessions of the General Assembly working group in an atmosphere of cooperation that is unprecedented.
To date, six policy briefs from civil society have been provided to the Open Working Group: macroeconomic policy issues; energy; global governance; human rights; means of implementation in the global partnership for development; and sustainable consumption and production and climate change mitigation.
All policy briefs from NGO's for the Open Working Group can be found on the UN-NGLS web site: UN-NGLS publishes Policy Briefs for the OWG on SDGs - United Nations - Non-governmental Liaison Service
The full sessions of the Open Working Groups are broadcast live and available on archive at webtv.un.org.
A few days ago, May East, representing international movements engaged with the re-designing of sustainable human settlements, Global Ecovillage and Transition Town movements, was given the floor.
"To truly make a difference, an urban Sustainable Development Goal would need to mobilize the greatest range of voices and experiences of all urban actors including local authorities, uban NGO's, planners and community members...Despite the state of the cities, if we do not have a positive vision of the future of our cities we will never get there. We need new narratives. They need to be bold, courageous and provocative. They need to combine the technical and the human."
Let's hold a good thought close to heart for the efforts of the Open Working Group.