High Level Political Forum 2017

10 July 2017

As UN Sustainable Development Forum Begins, NGOs Call for a New Development Paradigm based on Collaboration and Participation

New York, USA — Beginning today, the 2017 High Level Political Forum (HLPF) gathers governments and — this year — over 2000 non-state actors including NGOs, to examine governments’ progress and discuss priorities for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The NGO Major Group, which facilitates the engagement of a diverse group of NGOs in the HLPF, orchestrated a collaborative process to articulate a position paper for the 2017 HLPF, framing our analysis and recommendations for each of the Sustainable Development Goals under review this year. Representatives from of a diverse range of groups, including grassroots and autonomous regional organizations, will share their concrete policy proposals and recommendations directed at governments and the UN as they undertake measures to achieve the SDGs.

At least 90 member organizations of the NGO Major Group are in New York to participate in the HLPF, through organizing side events, delivering statements, and engaging in advocacy with UN Member States. Of these, 20 twenty hail from countries presenting their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) this year, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, Thailand, Qatar, and Zimbabwe.

The 2017 HLPF focuses on the theme “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world,” an imperative that is also a prerequisite for sustainable peace. Achieving these aims will not be possible unless the structural and systemic barriers to achievement — and root causes of exploitation and degradation of the environment — are addressed. Current neoliberal macroeconomic policy is a major driver of unequal distribution of wealth and power and the destruction of natural resources, and must be reconsidered and replaced. The NGO Major Group calls for a new development paradigm which furthers the well-being of humans, nature and animals, and which sees as its ultimate aim the achievement of equity and justice, to leave no one behind.

To read the full position paper of the NGO Major Groups for the HLPF, please click the following:

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The NGO Major Group recommends the following regarding the SDGs under review in 2017:

Goal 1: Addressing the causes and manifestations of structural poverty requires holistic, context-specific solutions interlinked with all other goals. Governments should report on their efforts to increase opportunities, wellbeing, and resilience among all sectors of society.

Goal 2: To end hunger and all forms of malnutrition, we must change our agricultural production from high-input, industrial exploitation towards systems that support smallholders’ livelihoods and preserve cultures and biodiversity.

Goal 3: Efforts to achieve health-related targets should prioritize the full spectrum of services from promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation. Governments, through a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach, must endeavour to remove social, cultural, and economic barriers to ensure full access to affordable, quality physical and mental health services for all.

Goal 5: Obstacles to the actualization of gender equality and the fundamental rights of women and girls should be overcome through implementing laws and policies that prohibit discrimination, redistribute unpaid care work, promote equality in access to resources, education, and decision-making, in alignment with internationally agreed conventions and standards.

Goal 9: All governments, including regional and local authorities, should promote inclusive, ecologically-sound industrialization and the provision of basic infrastructure that incorporates the protection of nature and participatory decision-making.

Goal 14: SDG14 must be a keystone in protecting the oceans as a substantial part of the biosphere, a unique ecosystem, an integral part of human civilization and major food provider, and a common good with equal and fair access rights.

-Fin-

Contact: Katie Tobin and Shefali Samdaria, NGO Major Group

+1 347 647 0860

katie@regionsrefocus.org and shefali.samdaria@columbia.edu

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