We hereby offer language for revised or additional targets, developed in January 2014 through a collaborative process to achieve consensus by members of Initiative for Equality (IfE), a network of civil society and academic partners working towards greater social, economic and political equality in more than 80 countries. Our proposals were then incorporated into the OWG’s Zero Draft Goals and Targets in June 2014. Our proposals address the concerns we hear when we take input from poor and marginalized communities around the world, as we conduct Field Hearings to learn what these community members are experiencing and thinking. Each suggested target would strengthen the goal to which it is attached by providing meaningful, measurable, needed, and achievable endpoints. These goals and targets, while ambitious, are within reach. The resources to implement these goals are available in the form of massive wealth held by a tiny fraction of the population of the world. A small tax on this wealth would easily end poverty and make it possible to address many of the other targets as well. The problem is not lack of resources. If we have the will, we can do it.

1111_593_IfE_Recommendations_on_OWG_Equality_Targets_13 June_2014.pdf

The process of globalization affects both urban and rural women, testing the strength of their ability to adapt. At first glance urban women with their active liberal-feminist attitudes have adapted to global changes much better than rural women. But there are costs of such adaptation while trying to combine career and family - stresses, age-related crises, depression, sense of losing femininity, aggressive behavior, copying the worst traits of men.

Rural women of Russia are not adapted to the processes of globalization, primarily because globalization has not yet entered the village, where institutions of civil society do not almost work. Insufficient provision of villages with hospitals has set up problems of medical care, including people with disabilities, both adults and children.

1111_3398_Kluchnikov report.docx

The OWG has begun to engage in detailed consideration of individual goals and targets. At this important moment however CIDSE believes a number of over-arching issues must be taken into account if this work, and the outcome framework, are to deliver and respond to the considerable task it has been entrusted with. This document contains a set of recommendations to the OWG incl. on promoting equality and gender equality and women's empowerment.

1111_3563_CIDSE OWG stock take and recommendations April 2014 Final.pdf

Stakeholder Forum has produced a 'Summary of targets from proposals in the SDGs e-Inventory under the OWG’s 19 Focus Areas'. A section is devoted to targets and indicators related to promoting equality.

Summary of targets from proposals in the SDGs e-Inventory under the OWG’s 19 Focus Areas
Putting stakeholders at the core of post-Rio+20 processes

Stakeholder Forum has produced a 'Summary of targets from proposals in the SDGs e-Inventory under the OWG’s 19 Focus Areas'. A section is devoted to targets and indicators related to gender equality and women's empowerment.

Summary of targets from proposals in the SDGs e-Inventory under the OWG’s 19 Focus Areas
Putting stakeholders at the core of post-Rio+20 processes

Opening Remarks for the OPGA High Level Event on

‘The Contributions of Women, the Young and Civil Society

to the post-2015 Development Agenda’

6 March 2014

By Paul Quintos

Campaign for People’s Goals for Sustainable Development

Excellency John Ashe, distinguished panelists, ladies and gentlemen thank you for this opportunity to share with you today our views and expectations as civil society for a new development framework that members states are currently shaping for the post-2015 era.

A few years ago several internal memos from one of the world’s largest banks, Citigroup, was leaked to the public. The memos described the world’s leading economies as “plutonomies” and advised investors that good returns would be generated from luxury consumption and lifestyles. It also warned against the possibility of rising corporate tax rates that could choke off returns to the private sector, and other taxes on personal income, dividend, capital-gains, and inheritance that could hurt the plutonomy.

It is this model of wealth accumulation that is directly responsible for the crises we now confront. Policies of consumerism, financial speculation, unmitigated exploitation of the world´s resources, privatisation of essential social services, resources and infrastructure, deregulation of labour and economies and militarism have made the world unsustainable, insecure and grossly unequal. The burden of these policies is borne by those least responsible: the impoverished and marginalized, especially women and children in the global south.

How can we maximize the contribution of women to society if they remain tied down by patriarchal structures that require women to carry the burden of the vast amount of the world’s unpaid and low-paid work, if they are being bought and sold as child-bearers, wives and workers while still not respected as equal rights holders? If they are most likely to die in climate related disasters, most likely to be displaced as subsistence farmers, most likely to suffer from the privatization of public services, goods and commons. If women suffer the tyranny of violence inside and outside the home and even internationally where might is normalised as the source of power?

How can youth and children best shape their future if millions are barred from getting an education and fulfilling their potentials? Even those who have degrees are denied decent work opportunities and therefore a life of dignity. Instead we have thousands of girls working in slave-like conditions in factories and plantations and mines or in homes of the better-off; to prop up the avaricious economic structures that demand increased consumption and production to benefit a tiny few.

The Citigroup memo warned that beyond war, inflation, the end of the technology/productivity wave, and financial collapse, the most potent and short-term threat to plutonomies would be societies demanding a more ‘equitable’ share of wealth. That time has come.

Over the past three years, streets and squares and fields across the world have become the sites of massive demonstrations, strikes, occupations, riots, rebellions and revolutions. From the Arab Spring to the movement of the squares in Southern Europe, to Occupy Wallstreet and the streets of Turkey and Brazil, people everywhere are rising up against inequality, injustice, and the lack of accountability of political authorities.

So if there is one clear message that we want our leaders to heed as we move to the negotiating stage of the post2015 agenda, it is this: we need to radically change the global political and economic system through a transformative and redistributive framework that aims to reduce inequalities of wealth, power and resources between countries, between rich and poor and between men and women.

Rhetorical normative language is not enough. Governments must make clear unequivocal commitments to a new course for the world that ensures the planet’s limited resources are used equitably and responsibly, acknowledging the historical debt of the few to the many, and our responsibility to future generations.

We need a goal to redistribute the obscene levels of wealth concentration within and between countries. Indeed, just 5% of the 46.2 trillion-dollar wealth of the world’s so-called “High Net Worth Individuals” is enough to cover the annual cost of a global social protection floor, climate change adaptation and mitigation combined. Targets can be adopted in terms of increasing the share of labor in national income; increasing progressive taxation; democratizing ownership and management of productive assets and finances, expanding solidarity-based and public forms of ownership over the means of production and distribution, strengthening diverse local economies and territorial management.

A strengthened global partnership for development that recognizes the common but differentiated responsibilities of countries is also critical in this regard. Public finance, technology transfers and capacity-building measures should be directed in support of sustainable development effort in developing countries. More importantly, the financial system needs to be fixed including the taxation of speculative flows, clamping down on tax havens, preventing tax competition, cancelling illegitimate and odious debt. The WTO, trade agreements and investment treaties should be circumscribed by human rights norms and principles rather than the other way around.

The respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights should be explicitly recognized as both the overall goal of sustainable development and the means for achieving it. All goals, targets and indicators should be aligned with relevant human rights standards. The immediate obligation to ensure at least essential levels of these rights, without discrimination or retrogression, requires ‘universal’ or ‘zero targets’ for all sectors wherever possible and strong equality benchmarking should be integral to monitoring progress. The duty to use the maximum available resources to fulfill these rights progressively requires monitoring of both the policy and fiscal and budgetary efforts of governments, alongside sustainable development outcomes.

To tackle inequality and injustice we need stricter regulatory frameworks for big business especially transnational corporations to ensure that they are fully transparent, respect human rights and are held accountable whenever they violate these rights. Corporate accountability must not rely on the goodwill and self-regulation of corporations.

Finally, if we want to harness the contribution of women, youth and civil society, the Post-2015 development framework must enhance the enabling conditions for people to claim their rights. The proliferation of new laws, policies and practices that limit core civil society freedoms of expression, association and assembly must be arrested and reversed. Instead, we need to bolster the means and opportunities by which people, especially the most marginalized and excluded, can hold governments, corporations, international institutions, donors and other power-holders to account. We must develop accountability mechanisms from grassroots to the global, community monitoring tools, budget monitoring, shadow reports to provide input in monitoring mechanisms, and so on.

If governments enter into negotiations looking for the lowest common denominator, if you settle for incremental changes that will help the poor but reproduce poverty and injustice, if you do not commit to dismantling the architecture of plutocracy, then people will persevere in demanding development justice – through these channels or through our collective struggles outside the halls of official power.

Thank you. ###

This paper describes the proceedings from the UN side event held last February 6, 2014 on empowering women and children through essential surgery as a sustainable development goal post-2015.

1111_5210_UN Positon Paper_ICES.pdf

Although, women make up half the world, they do not enjoy an equal claim to freedoms and opportunities. In the household, school, the workplace, and in politics, women continue to face violence, sexual abuse, exploitation and discrimination. Globalization and neoliberal reforms have worsened injustices against women. Reforms such as the withdrawal of food subsidies and cuts in public spending on healthcare, child care and education, and labor flexibilization strategies have had a disproportionate impact on women. Girls and women have suffered disproportionately from the global crises as they are the first to be withdrawn from education, to take on extra care for family members, and to lose their jobs or suffer from declining work conditions.

Gender justice is a critical matter for poverty reduction and development. Women play a triple role through economic contributions to the home, reproductive contributions (in raising children and caring for family members) and social contributions (in building the community and supporting the extended family). Improvements in women’s access to education and health services, and income and opportunities for employment, translates to higher household spending on food and essential goods, higher investment in children’s education and health.

Women and men also face gender-based discrimination due to their sexual orientation and rejection of prevailing norms of femininity and masculinity. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people face violence on a regular basis. They are confronted with social, political and legal discrimination which contribute to and encourage the social marginalization of LGBT people.

THE CHALLENGE

Realizing gender justice is more than the mere provision of legal regulations or amendment of discriminatory laws. Discrimination is rooted in perpetuating systems of patriarchy and negative social and cultural norms. Governments must play a central role in creating the conditions for negative social and cultural norms to be eradicated to allow women to enjoy their rights while respecting and protecting cultures. They can also address patriarchal structures which maintain women’s inequality.

THE CAMPAIGN FOR PEOPLE’S GOALS MAKES THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS TO GUIDE A NEW DEVELOPMENT AGENDA TO:

Take steps to fully implement international commitments on gender equality and women’s rights, including the Convention for Discrimination against Women, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Achieve universal ratification and implementation of CEDAW; Review, amend or abolish laws, regulations or policies that discriminate against women. Ensure adequate funding and resources for the implementation of laws and policies on gender equality and women’s rights
Put in place mechanisms to monitor the implementation of laws/provisions on gender equality and women’s rights
Ensure the availability of effective and accessible means of recourse and redress for violations of women’s rights and implement accountability mechanisms which women can access to demand for their rights to be respected
Take decisive legal and political action to address violence against women in all forms, physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological and perpetrated by all actors, state and non-state actors; these actions should be coupled with widespread education programs to challenge and to change negative social and cultural practices which drive violence against women
Promote education and greater awareness on gender and women’s rights within government in workplaces, schools and communities
Ensure equal access and opportunities in employment, land tenure, education, health, governance, and access to sexual and reproductive health services for women

Ensure systematic application of effective affirmative action to combat the marginalization and discrimination of women
Develop and implement gender-sensitive, employment-centered development strategies based on full and productive employment and decent work for all women in the formal and informal sector and which recognize and promote the social and economic value of women’s work in the home and care for the family and community.
Adopt measures to ensure the equal representation of women in all areas of economic, political, social and cultural decision-making, including community councils, government, ministries and international organizations.
Develop and improve adequate, sustainable and gender-responsive social protection schemes. Ensure universal access to appropriate, affordable and quality health care services for women and girls throughout the life cycle.
Pursue Policies to realize the rights of LGBT people

De-criminalise homosexuality (if still criminal) and reverse laws and policies that discriminate against LGBT people; legislate anti-discrimination laws to guarantee equality of opportunity for LGBT
Actively promote gender tolerance through widespread education and awareness raising on LGBT rights and ensure that LGBT people are not marginalized from accessing basic services, work and education opportunities.

Promoting Equality for Sustainable Development
Remarks at the OWG8
Feb. 7, 2014
By Paul Quintos
IBON International


Good morning to everyone and thank you for inviting us to join this panel and share our perspectives on the question of Equality. For us, equality is one of if not the most central issue that must be tackled by the Post-2015 development agenda.

Tackling inequality is probably the most serious challenge to SD today and more so in the future.

The grossly unequal distribution of wealth, resources and power is the principal reason for the persistence of poverty and human deprivation despite the leaps and bounds in the aggregate growth of material wealth produced in the world. Altogether, around 15 million people die every year largely due to a lack of access to nutritious food, basic healthcare services, or clean water for drinking and sanitation - equivalent to more than 40,000 preventable deaths every single day. This is not due to the lack of available resources or the limits of science and technology. It is a question of distribution and justice.

The wealthiest 20% of the world's population consume 80% of global resources and are responsible for the vast majority of global warming and environmental destruction. The poorest 20% of the population who lack sufficient access to essentials such as food, clean water and energy account for just 1.3% of global resource consumption. The ecological footprint of high-income countries is three times that of middle-income countries, and five times that of low-income countries.

We are heartened that all of our speakers yesterday as well as delegates who spoke from the floor were unanimous in acknowledging the absolute importance of reducing inequalities between rich and impoverished, between men and women, between developed and developing countries. We are particularly supportive of the proposals from the G77 and others regarding universal social protection, progressive taxation, a focus on creating decent work for all, strengthening workers rights, ensuring equitable access, ownership and control over productive assets and natural resources, ending all forms of discrimination and ensuring equal and effective participation of all people in decision-making including and in particular that of people living in extreme poverty.

We would like to add the need to expand the commons including community-based and public or collective forms of ownership and control over the means of production and distribution. We need to progressively ensure that peoples' access to the necessities for a dignified life is not determined by their purchasing power.

On the other hand, we would like to underscore the need to rein in the concentration and accumulation of private wealth and power, particularly corporate power. We need stricter regulatory frameworks for big business especially transnational corporations to ensure that they are fully transparent, respect human rights and are held accountable whenever they violate these rights.

A fairer international system is also urgently needed. The financial system needs to be seriously regulated through taxation of speculative flows, clamping down on tax havens, preventing tax competition, cancelling unsustainable debt burdens; and making finance serve sustainable development rather than maximizing profits. The WTO, trade agreements and investment treaties should be circumscribed by human rights norms and principles rather than the other way around.

The establishment and governance of a fairer international economic order should be coordinated by a reformed, democratic and more effective UN system. The UN can start by fully disclosing all contributions coming from the private sector and the terms and conditions of its partnerships.

We agree with the proposal to have a stand-alone global goal for reducing inequality in every country in order to raise its visibility and focus efforts in addressing it.

At the same time we should incorporate equality targets across other goals and require disaggregated data in measuring progress towards meeting these goals and targets, particularly for the lowest quintile of the population.

Thank you.

This paper is IBON International's response to the Draft Report on the Global Thematic Consultation on Inequalities

1111_5315_IBON International Submission on the Draft Report on Inequalities.pdf

This paper presents a wide range of policy proposals to tackle inequalities in all domains, which serve as structural barriers in achieving development goals premised on human rights, social justice, and sustainability.

The policy brief represents IBON’s continuing engagement in the growing discourse on addressing inequalities. It particularly responds to the recently released Synthesis Report on the Global Thematic Consultation on Inequalities prepared by UNICEF and UN Women in cooperation with the Governments of Ghana and Denmark as part of the UN’s post-2015 preparatory process.

The Global Thematic Consultation, which aims to address the issue of persisting inequalities as a central arena in formulating possible post-2015 frameworks and goals, gathered and synthesized inputs by countries, UN bodies, civil society actors and other stakeholders. IBON International has raised its own concerns in the form of a formal submission to an earlier draft Report, and is presenting this policy brief as a follow-up response to the final Report issued on February 8.

IBON International is also involved in a Campaign for People’s Goals (CPG), a network of grassroots organisations, labour unions, social movements, non-governmental organisations and other institutions that aims to forge new pathways to the future by challenging governments and the multilateral system to commit to real reforms that address the demands of the poor and marginalized, by campaigning for ten major thematic concerns. People’s Goal #2, in particular, addresses the central questions relating to poverty and inequality.

The participating organisations of the CPG, while pursuing an autonomous civil society campaign grounded in grassroots struggles, are also engaged in the official processes related to the post-MDG and the Rio+20 SDG agenda.

1111_5315_IBON International Policy Brief on Inequality.pdf

Gender inequality is acknowledged as the most pervasive form of inequality, and failure to achieve gender equality, impacts on the rights of women and girls everywhere, and slows growth and progress from a development perspective. This policy brief sets out key five issues for women and girls with disabilities, each of which highlight the intersectionality between gender and disability, and resonate with the current narrative for crosscutting goals on gender equality and the need for the post-2015 framework to be underpinned by human rights. The recommendations are both overarching (relating to gender equality and human rights) and are also specific to women and girls with disabilities.

1111_4018_Gender equality and womens empowerment- women and girls with disabilities.pdf

Initiative for Equality (IfE) is a grassroots network advocating the adoption of sustainable social, economic and political systems and institutions that promote socioeconomic equality and equal rights to well-being, resources and a healthy environment. Our unique approach to understanding and addressing inequality begins with soliciting input from marginalized communities around the world through our global Field Hearings initiative, now with 270 partners taking input from communities in over 80 countries. IfE supports the adoption of a stand-alone goal and supporting targets on equality, in addition to incorporating pro-equality concepts across the other goals and requiring disaggregated data in measuring progress towards meeting goals and targets.
We take this position because we see that social, economic and political inequalities drive many if not most of the barriers to development and sustainability. In order to meet this challenge head-on, we must focus explicitly on the role of inequalities. Needed progress towards equality can best be encouraged with a dedicated goal and explicit targets. At the same time, we recognize that this is a cross-cutting theme which touches on almost all the other goals and targets. For this reason, we also support incorporation of equality-related targets into most of the other goals. We believe that no target should be considered “met” until it is met for all segments of the population, and thus support the required use of disaggregated data for all measurements.

1111_593_InitiativeforEquality_GoalonEquality_ThematicPositionPaper _Jan2014.pdf

The policy paper, which is based on consultations with girls and young women, reviews the gaps and omissions from the MDGs and suggests how the priorities and aspirations of girls and young women should be reflected in the post-2015 development agenda.

1111_4623_Policy Paper - the World We Want for Girls.pdf

In this position paper, German Development and Disabled Persons’ Organizations stress the need for equality and empowerment of women with disabilities.

1111_1782_Equality and Empowerment of Women with Disabilities.pdf

German Development and Disabled Persons’ Organizations emphasize equality as a core principle for inclusive and sustainable development post-2015.

1111_1782_An Inclusive and Equitable Agenda Post-2015.pdf

In order to inform the deliberations of the Eighth Session of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Stakeholder Forum has conducted an analysis of the proposals currently housed within the SDGs e-Inventory which relate to the thematic areas of the meeting, including equality, social equity, gender equality and women.

The third Chronic Poverty Report proposes a new framing for a post-2015 goal to eradicate extreme poverty, focused on improving poverty dynamics – bring poor people up to and across the poverty line, including the hardest to reach; help them stay non-poor and improve their standard of living further, and prevent non-poor people from slipping into poverty. If anti-poverty policies neglect to tackle all three poverty dynamics in appropriate ways in different contexts, there is a real risk that up to a billion people will still be extremely poor in 2030.
Framing the poverty eradication goal in this way will help decrease inequality between and within countries. There is a strong relationship between improving poverty dynamics and reducing inequality.

1111_3029_The Third International Chronic Poverty Report - Observations on Inequalities.pdf

The recommendations on women’s human rights and gender equality presented here have been compiled from two civil society consultations conducted by UN-NGLS in 2013: a teleconference-based consultation that resulted in the report Advancing Regional Recommendations on the Post-2015 Agenda, and an online consultation on four post-2015 reports to the Secretary-General. A list of organizations that participated in these consultations is available here. This policy brief also draws on the December 2013-January 2014 online consultation orchestrated by the Addressing Inequalities Networked Alliance (AINA) and co-moderated by UN-NGLS on the issues brief “Promoting Equality, including Social Equity” produced by the UN inter-agency Technical Support Team for the OWG on SDGs.

1111_3099_UN-NGLS Brief for OWG on SDGs-GenderEquality-Jan 2014.pdf

Orientation text of the 6° edition of the Mont-Blanc Meetings - International Forum of the Social and Solidarity Economy Entrepreneurs. (Side-event dedicated to social and solidarity economy during the 8th session of the OWG on SDGs on February 4th)

1111_1683_Orientation text_6° edition MBM_ENG.pdf

1111_1683_FINAL DECLARATION MBM 2013_ENG.pdf

The Future We Need group was set up after Rio+20 to promote education and advocacy on sustainable development issues. We are a Christian faith-based group comprising seven religious congregations, endorsing community values, living sustainably and advocating eco-justice values. This is our fourth submission paper, having previously submitted to the 5th, 6th and 7th sessions at the UN General Assembly’s Open Working Group.

1111_3843_FINAL GENDER FOR SUBMISSION.doc

1111_848_1. WTBH Executive Summary 2012.pdf

Celine Paramunda from Medical Mission Sisters at the 5th session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals.

In this video, Ms Paramunda lays particular emphasis on the theme of inequality and highlights the need to address both extremes - extreme poverty and extreme wealth - in the elaboration of the SDGs.

Celine Paramunda on social justice and equity and the Sustainable Development Goals - YouTube
Celine Paramunda from Medical Mission Sisters at the 5th session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals. In this video, Ms Paramunda lays...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have produced many important gains for people around the world, but these improvements have often failed to reach those marginalised or discriminated against. This briefing outlines the relationship between inadequate access to WASH and inequality at global, national and local levels.

While the MDG drinking water target is on-track globally, largely due to progress in China and India, much of the developing world remains off-track, and there is a growing disparity between regions. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of people without access to safe water. Only 20 countries in the region are on-track to meet the MDG water target .

Progress on sanitation has been even slower. Despite the commitments made, the provision of safe toilets has not kept pace with the increase in population. There are actually more people without access to sanitation in the world today than there were in 1990 . At current rates of progress, the sanitation MDG target may not be reached until 2025 , and in 2015 the numbers will remain unacceptably high, with 2.4 billion still lacking access to improved sanitation .

There is inequality in WASH provision at the national level too. Figure 1, below, demonstrates the extent to which access to drinking water varies by wealth quintiles and rural/urban location. Market economies prioritise the most advantaged and governments typically focus on providing access to those who are easiest to reach and those with influence – the better-off and the politically powerful. Poor and marginalised people usually have least control over water resources, and are frequently last in line, despite the cost of a lack of access and the benefit from improved access being greatest for the poorest people and those in the most vulnerable situations.

1111_1151_7 - WASH and inequalities.pdf

A lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) affects women and girls disproportionally, due both to biological and cultural factors. In addition to meeting women’s needs around menstrual and sexual and reproductive health, WASH is also essential for their social and economic development, contributing towards gender equality and the realisation of their rights.

In any post-2015 framework, decision-makers must address the persisting inequalities between women and men, embracing the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination to ensure universal access to water and sanitation for all women and girls everywhere .

1111_1151_8 - WASH and gender equality.pdf

According to the World Bank (WB) and World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2011 World Report on Disability, “people with disabilities experience inequality—for example when people with disabilities are denied equal access to health care, employment, education or political participation because of their disability.” In addition, persons with disabilities, due of the nature of impairment, age, gender, geographical location, socio-economic and cultural background experience significant levels of discrimination and exclusion.

1111_4018_Disabilities and Inequalities in the Sustainable Development Process - Policy Brief IDA-IDDC.pdf

The Arab Spring marks a time of great urgency to address the primary challenge now facing governments in the region: to advance human development at a rate and effectiveness not before seen, and that failure to do so for the majority of people directly feeds potentially devastating political instability. In order for local communities and neighborhoods to identify, plan, and implement socio-economic and environmental projects they most need – which is the engine for sustainable human development – governments must play a critical role in catalyzing and furthering these local processes by: 1) decentralizing power and the needed capabilities, and creating the necessary administrative structures that promote local development, and 2) supporting experiential training in facilitating participatory planning to members of communities, civil organizations, and government - and implementing the projects communities determine. Morocco has created a number of essential national frameworks that promote development through people’s participation, but their implementation is critically lacking for identifiable reasons that can be addressed. This essay provides recommendations to directly promote human development driven by local communities, which is vitally needed in the Arab Spring. The recommendations develop from Morocco’s experience and major ideas and lessons from the field of international development since the 1940s. The essay also connects decentralization and human development models to the cases and opportunities in Egypt, Iraq, and Palestine, as well as to the contexts of free trade and rural areas, where most poverty is concentrated.

Contact:
Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir
haf@highatlasfoundation.org

1111_2919_Human Development in Morocco and the Arab Spring Region - Jan 2013 - doubled.pdf

In a study of the views of children on the issues of violence and exploitation, ChildFund Alliance conducted over 50 focus groups in 41 countries so that their voices can be heard as part of the post-2015 agenda.

ERT’s paper – published as the UN General Assembly meets to discuss the post-2015 Development Agenda – argues that a failure to address inequality has been one of the undeniable failings of the MDGs. The paper uses ERT research to illustrate that status-based discrimination is a driver of both income poverty and denial of access to economic and social rights, such as education and health, which are central to the current MDG framework. ERT argues that establishing effective legal protection for the rights to equality and non-discrimination can provide an important mechanism for alleviating poverty and its consequences, and concludes that this is only possible with the adoption of comprehensive equality legislation.

The paper responds to proposals made in A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies Through Sustainable Development, the report produced by the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda established by the UN General Secretary. In addition to the central recommendation, the paper recommends four key changes to the framework set out by the Panel:

- The inclusion of a specific target to “Establish positive action programmes to accelerate progress towards equality of a minimum of x% of the population, comprised of particular groups identified as being most exposed to poverty”;
- The inclusion of a specific target to “Ensure effective and comprehensive protection from discrimination” in the five goals associated with income poverty, education, healthcare, employment and participation in public life;
- The strengthening of the commitment to ensure that “Targets will only be considered ‘achieved’ if they are met for relevant income and social groups”, by improving the disaggregation of data; and
- The expansion of the proposed target on legal identity to include the elimination of statelessness.

1111_1851_130916 Equal Rights at the Heart of the Development Agenda.pdf

The Women's Major Group (WMG) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) New York Office together with UNWOMEN organised the side event, "Strengthening Gender Justice and Human Rights to Achieve Sustainable Development," on Thursday, September 19th, at the United Nations Trusteeship Council Chamber, New York, USA. The event was co-chaired by the Ambassadors of Timor Leste and Norway. The UN Trusteeship Council Room was full with over 200 people, including many representatives of governments. There were 3 hours of gripping evidence from our speakers - Vivienne, Azra, Caroline, Marisa, Bhumika, Noelene, Sascha - on the need for gender and economic justice, and questions and comments from the floor.
This event launched the joint publication of WMG/FES paper titled "Strengthening Gender Justice and Human Rights to Achieve Sustainable Development" as well as the WMG compilation document "Gender Equality, Women's Rights and Women's Priorities: Recommendations for the Proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Post- 2015 Development Agenda", from which the WMG/FES paper is drawn. These publications highlight women's perspectives on sustainable development themes and provide detailed analyses and recommendations. To download these publications in different idioms, please access the link: http://www.womenrio20.org/policy_statements.php

Women’s Major Group - Sustainable Development: Positions

Initiative for Equality (IFE)
IFE is a global network of activists and academics working on issues related to the three pillars of sustainable development; environmental, social and economic/ political equality. Along with partners and communities around the word. We develop information, goals, and strategies needed to bring about greater equality: We collaborate and coordinate efforts on issues, test and implement.
Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council(WSSCC)
WSSCC is a UN agency that work in open collaboration with its Members and partners to contribute to the broader goals of improved health, social and economic development and promote good governance, equity and sustainability
Women Environmental Programme (WEP)
WEP is a Nigerian-based NGO that inspires actions through working for change. The organization envisions a society where environmental, socio-economic and political rights of women, children and youths are protected through collaboration and partnership, networking, lobbying and advocacy for policy and decision inclusivity, community engagement, capacity building, climate change, water and sanitation, research and documentation.


These organizations with thier partners in over 67 countries collate input from highly vulnerable (economically insecure, socially excluded or marginalized) communities and present these collective voices in the global dialogue on Sustainable Development Goals with the aim of building a strong global network of organizations working for more equitable development and influencing the Sustainable Development Goals outcomes through these grassroots voices.

1111_93_Field Hearings Presentation 2013 CURRENT.pptx

The Women Major Group gave 2 interventions during the OWG on SDGs at the UN in NY on 18 and 19 of April 2013, with recommendations regarding the scope and process for the Sustainable Development Goals and their link to the Post 2015 process. The first intervention was given by Mette Kirsten Smidt and the 2nd by Shannon Kowalski. See also Women Major Group Pages.



Women's Major Group Intervention
Presented by Shannon Kowalski from the International Women's Health Coalition
2nd Meeting of the Open Working Group of the Sustainable Development Goals
19 April 2013
UN, New York



Poverty eradication intervention/response draft notes, April 19, 2013

Thank you, my name is Shannon Kowalski from the International Women's Health Coalition and I am speaking on behalf of the Women’s Major Group.

We would like to reinforce the comments from many member states, which have emphasized the centrality of human rights for the SDGs. Poverty is a consequence of systematic violations of human rights. To ensure that efforts related to the SDGs do not reinforce or exacerbate inequalities, discrimination and other rights violations that lead to exclusion, marginalization and poverty, the SDGs must be grounded in the protection and promotion of the human rights of all, with specific attention to the human rights of women and girls. The full, effective participation of women, persons with disabilities and others who are marginalized in the design and implementation of the SDGs is essential.

As the representative of Ireland (speaking on behalf of Norway and Denmark) said, the majority of the world's poor are women. Because of this it is important that poverty eradication efforts address the structural drivers that lead to the feminization of poverty. Linked to this, is the need to fairly redistribute wealth, assets and power among social groups, but especially between men and women. We offer a few recommendations that can help address the structural causes of poverty, and also address the institutionalized discrimination and asymmetric power dynamics that perpetuate gender inequalities and the feminization of poverty:

• Firstly, and importantly, we need to guarantee sexual and reproductive rights and universal access to quality, comprehensive, integrate sexual and reproductive health services to women and girls. Lets be clear; without the ability to control all aspects of their sexuality and decide the number and spacing of their children, women simply cannot participate equally in education, employment or political, cultural or social life.
• Secondly, women’s rights to and control over land, property, intellectual and productive resources, information and technology needs to be assured, and fair asset distribution among different social groups and between women and men must be promoted. Both are essential for lifting women out of poverty and ensuring they have the resources they and their families need to survive and thrive.
• At the same time we need to halt practices such as landgrabbing, the massive expansion of extractive industries and large-scale monocultures and other economic activities which affect the health of people and the environment, destroy small women farmers and fishers livelihoods, and push women into poverty.
• Instead, we need to strengthen local and regional sustainable agriculture structures and policies which can provide economic and livelihood opportunities at a community level and link rural and urban communities, as well as promotes food sovereignty - and access to nutritious, toxin-free food that addresses the issue of hunger.
• We need to guarantee women’s economic rights including by ensuring that women have equal access to decent work, which requires legal protections for women workers, maternity and sick leave, and a living wage;
• States should guarantee universal access to public care services and ensure quality and decent working conditions for care providers. This will contribute to a fair redistribution of unpaid care and domestic work.

We have heard comments on conflict, peace and security, but few mentions of the intersection of poverty and violence against women (VAW), which is a structural driver of the feminization of poverty and a major contributor to intergenerational poverty for women. VAW was identified as the #1 priority in the e-discussion on Gender Equality that was held as part of the UN post 2015 Global Thematic Discussion on Inequalities. And the recent outcome at the 57th UN Commission on the Status of Women underscored that ending VAW is key to eradicating poverty and achievement of inclusive sustainable development.

Finally we note that climate change is one of the greatest threats to poverty eradication and sustainable development, adding a fairly new dimension. Climate change has a devastating effect on women, their families and communities and their ability to move out of poverty, which should be acknowledged in a new framework.

Thank you.

Contact:
www.womenrio20.org
contact@WomenMajGrp.org

1111_340_WMG18April2013_Intervention.pdf