Post-2015 Development Agenda
Khan Foundation is interested and has been following the post 2015 and the Rio+20 processes. Nausheen Khan, Research Assistant has been involved with the Post 2015 process directly and has attended the
4th Meeting of the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons (HLPEP) on Post-2015 Development Agenda held in Bali in 2013. She consulted with Members of the High Level Panel including John Podesta, Chair of the Center for American Progress, Former Co-Chair of the Obama-Biden transition and Former White House Chief of Staff to President William J Clinon, Sung-Hwan Kim, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Republic of Korea, Ms. Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor of the Secerary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning and Ms. Patricia Espinosa, Former Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico on youth involvement in the post 2015 development framework. She participated in the Means of Implementation panel with HLPEP members Ms. Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor of the Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning and Ms. Patricia Espinosa, Former Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico and commented on the need for international development agencies to co-operate to better design development projects and avoid duplication and this was reflected in the communique for the 4th HLPEP Meeting, Bali
Rio+ 20 Process
At Rio+20 - the UN Conference on Sustainable Development - countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental process to develop a set of “action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate” sustainable development goals (SDGs) to help drive the implementation of sustainable development. A 30-member Open Working Group (OWG) of the General Assembly is tasked with preparing a proposal on the SDGs. Nausheen Khan participated in the 13th Session of the OWG on SDGs, held at the United Nations headquarters, which finalized the outcome document. She was part of the Women's Major Group (WMG), that was set up to include civil society voices and ensure that the sustainable development goals are participatory, inclusive and responsive to the needs of those directly affected by poverty and injustice, in particular women from marginalized groups.
In order to influence the outcome, I along with the WMG had several meetings with government delegates from the Bangladesh Mission, Iceland Mission, France mission to advocate our priorities. She was pushing for the climate change agenda to be included as an SDG and had several meetings with delegates where she advocated on that issue. All of the women's major group's hard work on the climate change agenda has been mostly successful. We were hoping for a standalone goal on climate change which has been included as Goal 13.
Proposed Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts *
*Acknowledging that the UNFCCC is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change .
We were hoping for a separate target that addressed women, local and marginalized communities and although that has not been added as a target, it has been added as an Means Of Implementation under the Goal. Considering the fact that this goal itself was contentious, (there was a division about having it as a standalone goal vs mainstreaming it throughout the other goals), we are happy to see that there is a new MOI, 13.b “Promote mechanisms for raising capacities for effective climate change related planning and management, in LDCs, including focusing on women, youth, local and marginalized communities”
Other successful outcomes included:
- Considering the level of tension among countries on contentious issues and the lack of consensus among the member states, one major milestone is the adoption of the SDG document by the Open Working Groups
- Standalone goals on achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, on inequalities within and between countries; on environmental sustainability, and on climate change.
- goals aim to end poverty and hunger, ensure healthy lives, and universal access to water and sanitation for all
- Progressive and development-oriented language for instance “for all”, “universal access” “ensure gender equality” “eliminate early marriage”
Law & Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting
Annual meetings are a critical aspect of the LSA's activities. At the meetings, participants exchange ideas in many ways. For example, some participants present papers in panels with discussants commenting upon them or post presentations on public boards for discussion with anyone interested; in other sessions, authors meet readers of their books or specialists and non-specialists participate in roundtables and freely debate ideas. Each meeting also includes a few general sessions, where everyone gathers to hear presentations of new ideas and recent work of leaders in the field, and several social events. LSA meetings are especially valued for their high levels of sociability. The 2014 Annual Meeting theme, titled, “Law and Inequalities: Global and Local” was held in Minneapolis. Recent decades have seen the persistence and growth of powerful inequalities within and between groups and within and among nations. The 2014 program theme returns to a question central to the Association’s founding: the role of law and legal institutions in sustaining, creating, interrogating, and ameliorating inequalities.RokhsanaKhondker, Executive Director of Khan Foundation was a discussant at the Gender Inequalities in a Comparative Perspective Panel and her paper was titled, “Eliminating Inequalities through Women’s Reserved Seats in the Bangladesh Parliament: Fight or Flight Response” The goal of producing and disseminating research at the international level is to reduceine qualities and to further the goals offairness and justice.