A new and innovative process of negotiations

At the completion of the MDGs, which were time-bound, the scope of the UN’s development agenda was expanded by bringing together the social, environmental and economic dimensions. The idea of a post-2015 development agenda emerged in the discussions on the implementation of the MDGs and was formalized at the UN Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The outcome document of

26 See UNEP Post-2015 Notes, available at <http://www.nrg4sd.org/unep-post-2015-briefing-notes/> (vis-ited 23 May 2016).

Rio+20, ‘The Future We Want’,²⁷ called for establishing an inclusive and transparent intergovernmental process on SDGs, open to all stakeholders. Governments, inter-national organizations and civil society, as well the UN family of programmes, funds and agencies participated actively throughout the process.

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda brought to fruition a three and half year process that was probably unprecedented in UN history in terms of its inclusiveness and participatory nature, and the interest it generated throughout the world and among various stakeholders. Initially described as the ‘post-2015 development agenda’, sev-eral streams of informal and formal consultations fed into the deliberations.

An Open Ended Working Group (OWG), comprising 30 representatives, was to be nominated by member states from the five UN regional groups in order to achieve fair, equitable and balanced geographic representation. The OWG was to decide on its method of work, including developing modalities to ensure the full involvement of relevant stakeholders, as expertise from civil society, the scientific community and the UN system was also to be included.²⁸ At the outset of consultations for the post-2015 development agenda, an Open Ended Working Group was established in January 2013.²⁹ Member states of the UN agreed to an innovative constituen-cy-based-representation accommodating 70 states in constituencies of two, three and in one case four states, while retaining the total representatives as 30 to be in accord with the ‘The Future We Want’.

The deliberations were lengthy and, at times, complex. Although not an exhaustive list, the important elements of the deliberations included the following:

• A High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons,³⁰ created by the UN Secretary-Gen-eral produced the first set of recommendations. This Panel’s work between September 2012 and June 2013 already built to a large extent on stakehold-er outreach.

• A series of 11 global thematic consultations were carried out by the UN over the course of 2013 on themes of central importance to sustainable develop-ment. These themes were identified by the UN Development Group³¹ and included, for instance, inequalities, education, environmental sustainability and energy.

27 Rio +20 Outcome Document ‘The Future We Want’, UNGA Res. 66/288 of 11 September 2012, avail-able at <http://www.uncsd2012.org/content/documents/727The%20Future%20We%20Want%20 19%20June%201230pm.pdf> (visited 23 May 2016).

28 Ibid. at para 248.

29 The UNGA established the OWG on 23 January 2013 by its Decision 67/555.

30 ‘UN Secretary-General Appoints High-level Panel on Post-2015 Development Agenda’, UN press release of 31 July 2012, available at <http://www.un.org/sg/management/pdf/PRpost2015.pdf> (visited 23 May 2016).

31 See <https://undg.org/>.

• Regional consultations and discussion on the proposed agenda were con-ducted by the UN Regional Commissions³² in partnership with relevant regional bodies. Particularly in Africa, this led to the development of a con-tinent-wide position on the agenda, under the leadership of the African Union.³³

• Worldwide, the UN, in partnership with member states and civil society, conducted 88 national consultations during 2013 and 2014.

• The UN organized the WorldWeWant Survey,³⁴ which was related to topics of the thematic consultations and enabled close to a million people to vote on their preferences and contribute to the process.

• In parallel to these official elements of the consultation process, there was an unprecedented level of engagement with civil society, the scientific commu-nity and the private sector, as well as with the general public.

• Discussions on the 2030 Agenda spilled over into the climate change nego-tiations under the UNFCCC, as well as into negonego-tiations under other mul-tilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), such as the Convention on Bi-ological Diversity.³⁵ During the period of its deliberation, the 2030 Agenda additionally stood out as the predominant topic in all the regular meetings and discussions taking place in the General Assembly and its Committees,³⁶ as well as the Economic and Social Council.³⁷

• The negotiations in the Open Working Group on the SDGs³⁸ (from March 2013 until July 2014) constituted a major milestone, and finalized a pro-posal for the SDGs that was ultimately accepted by member states in the inter-governmental negotiations leading to the adoption of the Agenda.

• The Secretary-General institutated an Expert Committee on Sustainable Development Financing³⁹ to prepare for the Addis Conference on Financ-ing for Development (FfD), both of which tackled the question of how to finance sustainable development in general and the 2030 Agenda in par-ticular.

• The High-level Political Forum (HLPF)⁴⁰ constituted another important forum for member states to discuss issues related to follow-up and review of the Agenda.

32 See <http://www.regionalcommissions.org/>.

33 Common African position on the post 2015 development agenda was adopted at the 22nd AU Assem-bly on 31 January 2014 at Addis Ababa. Available at <http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/upload-ed-documents/Macroeconomy/post2015/cap-post2015_en.pdf> (visited 23 May 2016).

34 See <http://data.myworld2015.org/>.

35 Convention on Biological Diversity, Rio de Janeiro, 5 June 1992, in force 29 December 1993, 31 Inter-national Legal Materials (1992) 822, <http://www.biodiv.org>.

36 See <http://www.un.org/ga/maincommittees.shtml> (visited 26 May 2016).

37 See <https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/home>.

38 See <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/owg.html>.

39 See <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1558>.

40 ‘Format and organizational aspects of the high-level political forum on sustainable development’, UNGA Res. 67/290 of 12 July 2013. See <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf>.

The OWG completed its deliberations in July 2014 and transmitted its report,⁴¹ containing the proposed SDGs as ‘input’, to the intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda.

The broad-based discussions and the inclusive and open process that was followed during the development of the 2030 Agenda set a new standard for UN-led delib-erations. It generated an unprecedented buy-in on the part of stakeholders, which is already flowing into discussions on implementation and policy actions in local, national and regional contexts.

The innovative format, scope and methodology of the process leading to the adop-tion of the new agenda became one of the success factors for the major UN achieve-ments in the last decade. It is quite possible that this format and style will also be adopted for other processes in the future. The following are some of the factors which defined this unique process:

• Line by line negotiation of the draft text – which, although the norm for international negotiations, is complex and time consuming – was avoided.

This enabled the co-Chairs to abide by the time plans and advance the work in a timely fashion.

• The co-facilitators in the OWG, and co-chairs in the intergovernmental negotiations, played a critical role through their leadership and diplomatic expertise.

• Led by the Secretary-General, his adviser on the post-2015 development agenda and the UN Department of Economics and Social Affairs (UN-DESA),⁴² the Secretariat provided strong support throughout the process, including time advice and efficient services in supporting the co-chairs and the delegations.

• Transparent and continuous civil society engagement helped to mobilize political momentum for the Agenda.

• Innovative seat/representational arrangements in the OWG avoided the formation of traditional blocks and saved the deliberations from getting bogged down.

• Active involvement of delegates coming from their respective countries;

against the usual norm where such working groups mostly comprise New York based delegates.

• The entire process was carefully choreographed, and most of the time lines were respected.

41 Report of the Open Working Group of the General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals, UN Doc. A/68/970 (2014).

42 See <https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/>.