Health and the next global development agenda
UN consultation process
Partnership key to healthier world beyond 2015
16 MAY 2013 — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda has concluded a three day meeting at the United Nations in New York, calling for renewed global partnership that enables a transformative, people-centered and planet-sensitive development agenda, realized through the equal partnership of all stakeholders.
The High-level Panel, which was appointed in July 2012 to advise the UN Secretary-General on the future sustainable development framework, will deliver a report containing its final recommendations on 30 May. This will lay the foundation for the next global development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals, targets to slash extreme poverty and disease by 2015 that were agreed to by all governments at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit.
After making the case for women’s and children’s health beyond 2015 on the sidelines of high-level meetings in Botswana and Tunisia, and noting a lack of focus on health in the High-level Panel’s Bali Communiqué, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health is making a final push to ensure that the unfinished business of the health MDGs factor prominently in the High-level Panel’s report to the UN Secretary-General, with a statement summarizing The Partnership’s post-2015 aspirations backed by more than 240 total partner signatures.
Background
The eight Millennium Development Goals, agreed on by world leaders at a United Nations summit in 2000, set specific targets to be reached by 2015 on poverty alleviation, education, gender equality, child and maternal health, environmental stability, HIV/AIDS reduction and a global partnership for development.
At the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2010, governments called for accelerating progress towards achieving the MDGs, and for thinking about ways to advance the UN development agenda beyond 2015. In response, the UN undertook several initiatives aimed at developing a post-2015 development agenda, including: setting up a UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda; launching a High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, co-chaired by the Presidents of Indonesia and Liberia and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom with members including leaders from the private sector, academia, civil society as well as local authorities; appointing a Special Advisor on Post-2015 Development Planning; launching more than 50 national and global thematic consultations; and starting a community-based discussion and global online conversation at www.worldwewant2015.org.