As the deadline for achieving the MDGs draws near, the ongoing process of the new UN-led Development Agenda that will culminate in New York in September 2015 constitutes a vital opportunity for different stakeholders in the Arab region to identify the regional priorities for the future development framework and express the needs and aspirations of Arab people to achieve inclusive and integrated development. In parallel, another important UN process is taking place in the context of financing development. This process was started in Monterrey in 2002 and, although independent, shares a similar and interlinked agenda, and will undeniably affect any new global and regional development model.
As a result, a comprehensive sustainable development vision for the future of the world in general and the Arab region in particular is needed. This vision should be founded on a range of economic, social, humanitarian, and environmental principles within an integrated and homogeneous framework, based on the principles of human rights and linking environmental sustainability, integrated economic development, human security, and integrated social development. As a whole, this vision should aspire to achieve a better future for all. Standing on the principles of social justice, it should be based on equality, sustainability, equity, participation, and human rights. This also entails setting the foundations of a democratic civil developmental state, built on a new social contract based on the principles of human rights, participation, citizenship, transparency, and accountability.
Against this backdrop, the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) collaborated with ESCWA to organize a Regional Consultative Meeting on the Post-2015 Agenda, on 30 April 2015 in Beirut. In addition to representatives from the Civil Society Department in the League of Arab States, the meeting gathered various experts from prominent civil society institutions across the Arab region, dealing with issues of social and sustainable development, good governance, women, democracy, and citizenship among others.
The meeting builds on the outcomes of two previous regional meetings held by the two organizations in 2013 and 2014 which culminated in producing two Arab civil society position papers on the Post-2015 agenda and process. The last meeting discussed key issues related to the above-mentioned global processes, namely the UN post-2015 agenda and the upcoming Conference on Financing for Development, and prepared key points to be presented during the second session of the High Level Arab Forum on Sustainable Development, held on 5-7 May 2015 in Bahrain, and during the Conference in Addis Ababa in July 2015.
The agenda of the meeting is available in Arabic. The background note and outcome document are available in both English and Arabic.
Cairo, Egypt
