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Welcome to the first of what we hope to be regular update e-mails from the emerging Post-2015 Women's Coalition. Many of you first engaged with this coalition in March during the 57th Commission on the Status of Women. Since then a number of key events and consultations have taken place-- highlighting both challenges and opportunities for continued work together to frame this global agenda.
As this process continues on an ever-complex path, the Post-2015 Women's Coalition sees a crucial need for concise and updated information on what is happening around gender equality, women's rights and social justice issues related to Post-2015-- even as we continue to explore more structured ways of working together in a transparent, mutually supportive, inclusive and progressive way. This includes making sure that all our work, in alliances, coalitions and official UN Major Groups, and around several different but intertwined processes, are complementary and amplify the efforts of each other.
Below, find short summaries of recent important meetings for the Post-2015 process, highlighting the work of a number of women's groups, as well as key documents and civil society statements to take note of.
Please note that much of the work highlighted in this newsletter is not specifically the work of the Post-2015 Women's Coalition, but a collection of news and information from a variety of sources and groups, working at the international and regional level to influence this process.
If you have any additional information to add or share, please send to [email protected].
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3rd Meeting of Post-2015 High Level Panel, Monrovia
30 Jan - 1 Feb, 2013
The third meeting of the High Level Panel was held in Monrovia, Liberia with a specific emphasis on national growth, economic transformation, and development. There was a strong presence of civil society organizations, who during the second day of the CSO pre-consultative forum on January 29th. presented five key 'vision' statements to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The statements represented several 'vulnerable' groups - children, youth, ageing and disability, women and gender, farmers, workers and informal sector. You can read them here.
In addition, there was a specific roundtable on gender with the High Level Panel and the meeting ended with a very strong communique from CSOs.
Key Inputs/ Outputs
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Commission on the Status of Women- CSW57
4-15 March, 2013
During the CSW57, the Post-2015 Women's Coalition hosted a side event to explore advocacy around the process as an opportunity for women's rights and social justice organizations to contribute to shaping a development framework that can transform the lives of women and marginalized populations. The event focused on three main questions: what is the Post-2015 Development Agenda; what are the gaps and challenges; what/why is the Post-2015 Women's Coalition. A full report on the event can be found here.
The Coalition also met with a number of other activists during CSW, hosting a strategy meeting on March 8th and 9th to begin exploring the structure, principles and objectives of the coalition and how we can best work in a strategic and inclusive manner. The outputs of these meetings are currently being analyzed to develop a clear roadmap for the coalition on ways forward.
Many members of the coalition were heavily involved in advocacy during the CSW57, and key challenges to progress on women's rights language foreshadowed obstacles ahead in framing a new development agenda. As Rowan Harvey writes in an excellent article on the CSW57 meeting, "Next year's [CSW] topic - the agenda for development when the millennium goals expire in 2015 - proved contentious this year, with attempts to introduce progressive language struck down as quickly as they were proposed. This is essentially new territory for the CSW and, if this year was anything to go by, we're going to have to fight every step of the way. With the future of half the world at stake, we can't afford not to." .
Key Outputs
REPORT: CSW57 Women's Coalition Parallel Event
STATEMENT from Civil Society on Alarming Trends at CSW57
VIDEO: Interactive Panel on Post-2015
ARTICLE: Report of CSW57 Interactive Panel, Third World Network
REPORT: The Future Young Women Want, World YWCA
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Open Working Group - First Session
14-15 March, 2013
The first session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took place on 14-15 March 2013 at UN Headquarters in New York. In The Future We Want (the Rio+20 Outcome document) governments resolved to establish an inclusive and transparent intergovernmental process on SDGs open to all stakeholders, via a working group of 30 representatives. SDGs are to be action-oriented, limited-in-number, aspirational and universally applicable, and the process is to be coherent with post-2015 processes. You can find a full report on the first session from IISD here, and you can watch Noelene Nabulivou of DAWN and the Women's Major Group give a civil society intervention on behalf Women, Indigenous and Trade Unions Major Groups during the meeting.
Key Inputs/Outputs
INTERVENTION- Women. Indigenous and Trade Union Major Groups
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Bonn Civil Society Meeting- Advancing the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
20-22 March, 2013
This event brought together about 250 civil society activists and representatives of key stakeholders in order to draw together civil society inputs into the Sustainable Development and Post-2015 discussions. The conference aimed to give an overview of civil society perspectives and demands across a multitude of discussions and consultation processes going on worldwide: some in the context of the Rio+20 process, others preparing the Post-2015 agenda, some with a specific sector focus & others on national or regional level.
There was a very active presence of women's rights activists and collaboration during the Bonn meeting, including members of the Coalition as well as from the Women's Major Group (WMG) and other international networks and alliances. A Women's Caucus was coordinated by the WMG each morning of the conference and made strides to cover each theme within the meeting. They also staged a protest within the venue, demanding transformation in the Post-2015 agenda for women's rights and gender justice.
Key Outputs
STATEMENT: Feminist Visions of Structural Transformation, WMG
STATEMENT: Gender Equality to End Poverty, Bonn to HLP
STATEMENT: Mensaje de la Region Latino Americana y del Caribe
STATEMENT: A Red Flag to the Post-2015 HLP
Photos: Women activists activities in Bonn
Further statements and outputs can be found here.
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4th Meeting of Post-2015 High Level Panel, Bali
25-27 March, 2013
The 4th meeting of the Post-2015 High Level Panel in Bali was geared towards p artnership and cooperation for development, with a focus on strategies for implementation and opportunities to shape a global consensus on the new development agenda. A number of women's organizations and activists were able to join the meeting in Bali, and particularly, to bring messages coming out of Bonn to the spaces there. A women's rights roundtable with the HLP was organized by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development ( APWLD) and a statement was finalized by several organizations, including the Post-2015 Women's Coalition members Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC).
The HLP's meeting in Bali ended with a communique, which many groups found lacking as it did not respond to the multiple demands articulated in the statements coming out of Bonn and Bali. At a roundtable on women's rights in Bali, Norma Maldonado of Guatemala told the HLP that she found the consultations around Post-2015 'shallow' and highly exclusive. Click here to read that article.
The final report of the High Level Panel, which will be sent to the General Assembly for consideration, is expected by the end of May.
Key Inputs/Outputs
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Ongoing Post-2015 Thematic Consultations
Meanwhile, several thematic consultations are still ongoing, which several networks and groups have been covering, including those around Inequalities, Environmental Sustainability and Population. You can find the most recent reports on these meetings on the IISD Reporting Services (IISD RS) website.
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WHAT'S NEXT
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Open Working Group (17-19 April)
The second session of the Open Working Group (OWG) will take place from 17-19 April 2013 at UN Headquarters in New York. Download the full program here.
Prior to this, on April 16th, a consultation meeting with Major Groups and other stakeholders was scheduled to explore positions on the post 2015/SDGs agenda and begin discussions on coordinated advocacy on the Rio+20 processes, especially the OWG, the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) negotiations and sustainable development financing strategy.
There is an opportunity to get involved via social media and below are some resources you can share with your networks:
Twitter: Have a question for the next meeting of the OWG on #SDGs? Tweet it to @SustDev using #SDGs. Find out more: http://bit.ly/10LNxA1
Facebook: Join the conversation on sustainable development goals! The intergovernmental Open Working Group on sustainable development goals (SDGs) will convene its second meeting on 17-19 April 2013. As called for in the Rio+20 outcome document, the group is to come up with a proposal for a set of SDGs that are action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate, limited in number, aspirational, global in nature and universally applicable, while taking into account different national realities. You can submit your questions on SDGs and poverty eradication to the Open Working Group by tweeting them to @SustDev using #SDGs by 15 April 2013.Selected questions will be put to participants at the meeting. Please see the programme for further details: http://bit.ly/10LNxA1 Guadalajara, High Level Panel (17-20 April) | |
Key Inputs
STATEMENT: Feminist Visions of Structural Transformation, Bonn, WMG
STATEMENT: Gender Equality to End Poverty, Bonn to HLP
STATEMENT: Bali Women's Caucus Statement
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RELEVANT Reports/Publications
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Regional and National Consultation Reports
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Additional consultation reports can be found on the World We Want platform.
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March 7, 2013: CSW57 Interactive Panel 3 on Emerging issue: Key gender equality issues to be reflected in the post-2015 development framework.
March 8, 2013: For International Women's Day, Amplify Your Voice, a project of Advocates for Youth, asked young people to share their thoughts on women's rights in the Post-2015 Agenda. View the entire playlist here.
March 15, 2013: Noelene Nabulivou gives civil society intervention on behalf Women, Indigenous and Trade Unions Major Groups at the open working group of SDGs.
March 19, 2013: Norma Maldonado speaks about concerns and challenges in Guatemala at Environment Consultation on Post- 2015. Background information here.
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With the 2015 deadline for the millennium development goals fast approaching, attention has turned to what should follow. With their interactive timeline, The Guardian, charts the key events, main news and commentary on the post-2015 process
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