On May 27, 2015 Daisy Owomugasho, The Hunger Project Country Director of Uganda, spoke at the UN interactive hearings on the Post-2015 development agenda. The theme of the discussion, “Means of Implementation and Global Partnership for Sustainable Development,” was aimed at fostering active participation and ensuring regional and gender balance, diversity of expertise, sectors and age among speakers to contribute to the formulation of the new development agenda, which will finalized by the end of the year after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire.
The meeting was intended to provide meaningful inclusion of all stakeholders in the formation and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and invited representatives of NGOs, civil society organizations (CSOs), and the private sector to speak on the Post-2015 Development.
The opening panel included representatives from the private and public sector, including Accenture, The International Council for Science, Beyond 2015, and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).
The speakers noted that all stakeholders will have instrumental roles to play if the global community is to achieve the sustainable development goals. Civil society should serve as an important linkage between governments and local communities, while also enhancing accountability and fostering greater participation at all levels. Businesses should make an important contribution towards promoting sustainable growth and creating jobs to lift people out of poverty, while new approaches to philanthropy should harness synergies across all stakeholder groups.
The panel highlighted the need to ensure that the new agenda fosters shared prosperity where no one is left behind, including youth, women, those with disabilities or otherwise marginalized groups. Many speakers emphasized the need for the new agenda to be holistic and to integrate the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
Daisy was one of five Member State stakeholder respondents, and was selected out of more than 265 applicants. In her address, Daisy called for a transformative agenda, one in which the SDGs are developed and implemented from the bottom up; one in which everyone is empowered—without distinction and at all levels—through the most inclusive policy-making process in history.
Daisy called on UN Member States and development actors—in partnership with citizens—to address the following in the Post-2015 agenda:
- Capacity building through human resource development, especially for the less developed world
- The empowerment of women
- Inclusion of the youth voice and youth leadership opportunities, especially those that are marginalized
- Political rights awareness, especially to empower women and girls who are victims or at risk of gender-based violence, or early, child or forced marriage
- Multi-sectoral funding streams and multi-sectoral programs to increase partnership opportunities, drive innovation and increase capacity
- Integrated development strategies with less resource and service provisions to mitigate dependency and catalyze self-reliance
- Local ownership of implementation and monitoring to increase capacity and ensure inclusiveness
- Good governance, democracy and observance of human rights
- Fostering respect, trust and effective collaboration between citizens and their local governance systems from the establishment of social accountability mechanisms
- Fostering participatory local democracy and strengthening transparency and good governance at the grassroots
Learn More:
Watch Daisy’s speech at the UN
Learn more about the UN interactive hearings
