Agenda 2030
Deliberation on Sustainable Development Goals
Deliberation on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda are taking shape and the negotiations on scope and financing of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are becoming more concrete and contentious at the same time. Sustainability has been a concern for several decades and has gained greater importance in light of increasing climate warming and continued instabilities of the social and economic sectors at global levels. Two separate UN processes are underway to determine the SDG framework namely the HLPF (High Level Political Forum) and the OWG (Open Working Group) both working on defining and negotiating the world's Sustainable Development Goals. In addition,various stakeholder groups (NGOs, Business, Civil Society, Academic Institutions) and International Organisations have started their own discussions on what issues and priorities should be core features of the coming SDGs.
To be able to agree on a single integrated framework is critical to ensure successful progress towards the definition and implementation of the SDGs. Concrete goals need to be set at national, regional and global levels and concrete financial resources need to be committed for SDG implementation. The issues and themes that will have been identified as being top priorities will set the stage for policy choices concerning sustainable development goals and determine the world's progress.
CSEND, a think tank focusing on the development nexus of trade, poverty, employment and social equity, is contributing to these deliberation through its engagement in both the global, national and regional levels.
Raymond Saner, CSEND, Geneva, 2021
In addition to the inclusion of Voluntary National Reviews as part of the High-Level Political Forum’s (HLPF) review process, cities, region or provinces are now also partaking in this voluntary review process during the annual HLPF meetings in July at the UN headquarters. These subnational administrative units report on their own implementation and monitoring of the progress of the SDGs in the format of Voluntary Local Review (VLR). These VLR reports are available at the UN DESA SDG Knowledge Platforms.
One of (UNOSD’s (United Nations Office for Sustainable Development) flagship activities is the annual Executive Training Course for Policymakers on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Executive Training Course for Policymakers on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is intended to provide policymakers in central and subnational governments with the knowledge, skills and tools for implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at all levels of society.
The Executive Training Course (ETC) has as its general objective to build the knowledge, skills, mindsets, and general capacities of Member States for implementing sustainable development planning, policy making and policy shaping through an integrated approach. This year, the Executive Training Course for Policymakers on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will focus on the SDG 3 on good health and well-being, SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production, SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions, and SDG 17 on partnerships in the context of the current challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and will seek to identify potential solutions to support a swift recovery from the pandemic and accelerate the delivery of the SDGs in this Decade of Action.
“Intergenerational Dialogue” organized by Greycells and its partners with the support of the City of Geneva and the Foundation for Geneva on 7th July 2021 at the University of Geneva. The topic of the 2021 conference was “People, PLanet & Prosperity”. Raymond Saner’s presentation was “Prosperity and Economic Inequalities”
Raymond Saner’s presentation was “Prosperity and Economic Inequalities”
Yiu, L., Saner, R. & Bardy, R. (2020). Business Ethics and Leadership, Volume 4, Issue 4, 2020 ISSN (online) – 2520-6311; ISSN (print) – 2520-6761
Maintaining and expanding public goods is synonymous to promoting sustainable development but discussions are needed to clarify how policies need to be coordinated to enable collective action on public goods. Collective action for Public Goods will only be successful if all who partake in such actions can gain complementary benefits that would be either more costly or impossible to achieve without the collective effort. Such complementary benefits are possible provided all stakeholders contributing to the public good of social peace and social cohesion cooperate with each other and preserve this and other public goods be they citizens, civil society organizations, all public authorities and all business firms. This concerted effort for a good cause can certainly be coined “ethics in action”.
This article describes the UN Agencies that are based in Geneva as well as the major organisations which represent civil society also based in Geneva. As second step, the authors give an example of the complexity and importance of UN decision making processes exemplified with the attempts to create a universal agreement on the protection of older persons. Finally, a description of the Sustainable Development Goals is listed with possible interlinkages with the divisions of IAAP.
Raymond Saner, Lichia Yiu and Melanie Nguyen, (2019)
Abstract
This article discusses how monitoring can be used to support the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a special focus on measuring their attainment through citizen participation. The article argues why monitoring must be an integral part of managing the SDG implementation process and shows that the measurement of SDG attainment remains vague and incomplete. Countries are supposed to review their progress in SDG implementation every four years, but the method of reviewing is left open even though the first review is scheduled to take place in 2019. In addition, and even more urgent, is the inadequate definition of monitoring methods that countries are supposed to deploy. This article studies the various options currently available to conduct the four-year review and breaks down monitoring into two types: micro-monitoring and macro-monitoring, both of which are necessary to ensure effective and efficient monitoring in achieving
This policy brief discusses how UNCTAD and UNECE could meaningfully cooperate in improving the robustness of SDG 17.17.1 indicator and to find ways to improve this indicator’s status from a Tiers III to a Tiers I indicator.
Christian Kingombe & Raymond Saner, December 2018
“Organising Monitoring of SDG based on the three principles (transparency, inclusiveness, participation) and following wikipedia methods using ground truth ICT techniques” panel organised by Raymond Saner during the 2018 ITU-WSIS conference.
The organizer first explained the 2030 Agenda's description of evaluation and monitoring of the SDGs by national and subnational governments. As a next step, the method of ground truth was presented as possible approach to organise monitoring based on the 2030 Agenda's principles which are transparency, inclusiveness and participation. Panels subsequently presented their views as to how monitoring could be organised using ground truth methods such as wikipedia or other ICT based interactive methods. Questions from the floor were encouraged to broaden and deepen the discussion at the same time. As a second step, a case example of a LDC was given and panelists described their use of the Ground Trust Method. The panellists were Prof Raymond Saner, Director Diplomacy Dialogue, CSEND, Geneva, Dr Lichia Saner Yiu, President, CSEND, Geneva, Mrs Barbara Rosen Jacobson, Research & Project Associate and Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque, head of IFRC Community Engagement Unit. The session was moderated by Mrs Beris Gwynn, founder of INCITARE, Coppet, VD, Switzerland.
16th International Conference and Fifth Diaspora International Conference of World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD), both co-organised and hosted by the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) in the United Nations Palais de Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, 10-13 April 2018. http://www.wasd.org.uk/geneva2018/program-2018/
Presentations given by Raymond Saner on “ Implementing the SDGs by subnational governments: urgent need to strengthen administrative capacities” and by Lichia Saner Yiu on “ Measuring Progress of SDGs Implementation: Monitoring Process & Improving Coherence & Coordination”
The United Nations (UN), in association with the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) Mona, The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT), Jamaica hosted a regional conference under the theme: “Caribbean Development – The 2030 Agenda in Perspective” at the Jamaica Conference Centre, June 28-30, 2017.
Thought piece for the Think 20 Dialogue as a contribution to the G20 Germany 2017 process on “The 2030 Agenda: No Poverty Reduction without Policy Coherence” by Raymond Saner & Lichia Yiu.
EADI conference on Globalisation at the Cross-Roads: Rethinking Inequalities and Boundaries, Bergen, Norway, 20-23 August 2017
CSEND Round Table “Policy Oriented Round Table on the Need for Better Policy Coherence and Policy Coordination for SDG Implementation amongst International Organisations”
Open call expressing profound concern at the inadequacy of measures currently under discussion at the global level (UN-HLPF-ECOSOC) regarding implementation of the SDGs and calls for immediate remedial action to ensure “coherent, efficient and inclusive follow-up and reviews” of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
Looking at the Bright Side
Raymond Saner & Lichia Yiu, EFMD Global Focus, Issue 2, Vol. 10, 2016.
Monitoring of SDG Implementation: Call for Action.
Deficiencies of Selected Indicators for Goal 17 Targets: Suggestions and Additions.
Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Sustainable Development through a Public Good Perspective.
A special CSEND Working Paper focusing on the system perspective in designing the SDG targets and measures for the post-2015 agenda.
Science Diplomacy to support global implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Raymond Saner, March 2015.
“The first SD-Learning Course has been launched by the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) as an integral part of the capacity building process for the implementation of the SDGs. The courses are scheduled from Friday, 26 June through Wednesday, 8 July 2015 in New York prior to the third HLPF conference programme for 6th July through 8th July 2015. CSEND has designed two modules and presented on the 29th June. Other modules have been designed by UNITAR, the World Bank, Sustainable Development Solutions Network and others.
Sustainable Development Goals and Millennium Development Goals:an analysis of the shaping and negotiation process by Lichia Saner Yiu and Raymond Saner, 2014. Article
MONITORING OF SDG IMPLEMENTATION Infrastructure and Methodology – Proposal for Action, Article
CSEND Proposal on Monitoring Infrastructure has been included in the "Prototype Sustainable Development Report" (6/2014), P. Our policy brief has been adopted into the Prototype Global Sustainable Development Report (http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=1621). It reads, "A toolbox for monitoring sustainable development progress will need to be developed, in order to help decision makers. In this context, it is noteworthy that academics have proposed a dynamic SDG monitoring system that is based on comprehensive and differentiated data collection reflecting the operational realities at different levels of each country. It would make use of all three types of approaches for measuring sustainable development that are presented in this chapter. (Chapter 5: Measuring Progress, Page 82; Complete citation can be found as footnote 247) The full Prototype Global Sustainable Development Report can be seen at here.
HLPF 2 - Moderated Dialogue "Means of implementation for sustainable development"
Original - June 30, 2014 at here
Implementation of post-2015 development agenda by Raymond Saner, 30 April 2014 at the Expert Group Meeting on the role of the high-level political forum on sustainable development in post-2015 development framework (30 April 2014-1 May 2014) in New York.
A seminar on “Sustainable Development in the Developing World” was organized jointly by Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND), UNCTAD, Future of the UN Development System (FUNDS) and Business Systems Laboratory on 28th Jan. 2014. The debate took place alongside a book launch event and was focused on “whether the current approach to measuring sustainable development is good enough to support sustainable development in developing countries?”, part of the larger discourse on Post-2015 sustainable development goals.