1. Please list a limited number, preferably between five and ten, of the important priority areas that must be addressed through the SDGs to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development
a) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
b) Increase sustainable agriculture
c) Improve universal health care coverage / fight the main transmitted diseases (HIV, tuberculosis, malaria)
e) Provide professional education for all.
f) Improve universal access to water and sanitation
g) Increase the global share of renewable energy.
h) Increase the resilience of cities to disasters.
i) Accelerate reforestation and protect biodiversity
j) Promote gender equality
k) Improve the current international trade economic and financial system.
2. How might the SDGs strive to balance the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development?
a. Reflect social, economic and environmental dimensions within each SDG, possibly through the associated targets
b. Integrate the MDGs, suitably modified/updated for post-2015, into a larger sustainable development framework
yes
c. Expand MDG7 (‘environmental sustainability’) into a number of goals with a natural/environmental resource dimension (water, food, energy, etc.)
yes
d. Other (please describe)
3. Based on your experience with MDGs or other existing goals, what would be the key use of SDGs for your country (select at most two)?
Key use #1
a. Defining national policies
Key use #2
d. Addressing key pressure leading to unsustainability
If g. Other (please describe)
4. How can “universally applicable” SDGs be made practically relevant for countries at different levels of development? (Please refer to your country’s situation as appropriate.)
Targets must be chosen in such a way to involve all countries, but will differentiate in terms of level. Example: fighting HIV could mean reducing the rate of prevalence by 10 % for a LDC country like Haïti where the rate is among the highest while the target could be 50% for developed countries with much lower prevalence rate.
5. The SDGs are supposed to be “global in nature”. Should targets associated with those goals be:
c. common but differentiated depending on country characteristics and level of development?
If c., please explain how:
targets must be defined quantitatively in proportion to the level of development of each country on a purchasing power parity basis.
6. Which existing goals and targets (e.g., MDGs, goals/targets in Agenda 21, JPOI) do you think should be incorporated - perhaps in updated form - in a proposal for sustainable development goals?
The MDGs should definitely be incorporated in an updated form.
7. What specific steps can be taken to ensure that the SDGs are coherent with and integrated into the UN development agenda beyond 2015?
To ensure that the SDGs are coherent with and integrated into the UN development agenda beyond 2015, any further consultation on a development agenda should use the SDGs as a guideline.
8. How should assessments of progress toward the achievement of the SDGs be carried out at the global level?
Assessments of progress toward the achievement of the SDGs should be based on an identical timeline, provided that the targets have been defined to take into account differences in level of development and characteristics (cf. 4) and 5)).
9. What measures should be taken to make the process of developing a proposal for SDGs inclusive and participatory? How should civil society and other relevant stakeholders be engaged?
Based on our experience on inclusiveness and participation in broad public policy, we think that civil society, local community, especially human rights, youth and women organizations, workers and farmers unions, and all relevant stakeholders should be engaged at every step of the process at the national and local level. The United Nations system could play a critical role by inviting representatives of those groups at every phase, from conceptualization to implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
10. What principles should underpin the development of the SDGs? (the UN TT report, for example, recommended adding (i) reducing inequalities and (ii) promoting human rights (iii) ensuring sustainability);
i) establish and applying good governance principles
ii) promoting basic human rights
iii) increase equal opportunity
iiii) ensuring sustainability
11. How should a new Global Partnership for Development be constructed within or around the SDGs?
The Global Partnership should define responsibilities and role of every party especially in terms of resources (technical, financial among others) allocation between developed and developing countries.
12. Do you have any other observations, ideas or inputs you would like to offer to inform the initial work of the open working group on sustainable development goals?
The targets associated with the SDGs should be realistic, but as specific and quantitative as possible. For developing countries, the possibility of some sort of acknowledgment, award or any other incentive could be made an option if the country had reached or even exceeded the specified target in one or many different goals. For example, such a country could benefit from multilateral and bilateral donors’ agreement to automatically increase their Public Development Aid in the future since it would be a proven wise investment in achieving global and sustainable development. An appropriate form of incentive could also be defined for developed countries with respect to their own effort.
Submitted by: Astride Nazaire, Minister Counselor, Permanent Mission of Haiti
