Statement of the Major Groups and Other Stakeholders during the HLPF 2016 Session 4 on Voluntary National Review

WGNRR participated in the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development happened on 11-20 July 2016 at the UN Headquarters in New York.  WGNRR’s Asia Programme Officer, Marevic Parcon, attended the event with the support from the Asia Pacific Regional CSO Mechanism. Marevic was selected to speak on behalf of the Major Groups and Other Stakeholders during the Voluntary National Review presentations of the Governments of the Philippines, Togo and Estonia. However, the intervention was not called by the moderator of the session. Please find the intervention below.

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Distinguished delegates,

I am Marevic Parcon from the Women’s Major Group and the Asia Pacific RCEM speaking on behalf of the Major Groups and other Stakeholders from Estonia, the Philippines, and Togo.

The success of any sustainable development agenda lies in the broadest of ownership; therefore, to be true to the spirit of the 2030 Agenda, we need to transcend the ‘whole of government’ model to a ‘whole of society’ approach. This means that decision-making processes that affect the majority of our people, are not insulated and monopolized by policy makers and technocrats and that  people’s organisations, especially those working at the grassroots level, are  in a position to influence public policy making. Without this,  “leave no one no one left behind” is just another nice but empty phrase for those who are most marginalized.

As such, we would like to ask the following questions, how does the Government envisage the role of civil society organisations in reaching 2030 Agenda? How do you define who are the most left behind and how to reach them first, what are you going to do to reach them first? How do you ensure that all sectors, especially those who are working at the grassroots level, have meaningful participation in the consultation processes that is open, inclusive, transparent and accountable? What does the Government do to build capacity of all sectors to reach 2030 Agenda?

Specifically:

For the Philippines: The Philippines scores well on international gender equality measures and indices, consistently ranked among the top ten countries in the world in gender equality. However, structural inequalities and violations to women’s rights persist that are manifested in high number of women dying due to childbirth and unsafe abortion; among the highest in incidence of teenage pregnancies and HIV infection; women lack economic opportunities; high rate of gender-based violence where in every 53 minutes, a woman or child is raped.

How do you plan to strengthen your political commitment to promote women’s rights and ensure women’s access to justice?

For Estonia: How do you ensure that the young people feel the ownership of 2030 Agenda? What are your plans in providing enabling environment for young peoples organizations?

In Togo, we found that the report did not reflect the engagement on gender issues. In the process some women’s groups were consulted but not all organisations particularly those who are based in remote rural areas. How you do make sure that women and girls, in all its diversity, will have a say on how they want live their life, what they need for a better life and how to address their concerns?

Governments worldwide continue to employ “business as usual” development strategies, which time and time again have left the majority behind. How do you think the current development strategies contained in national development plans, and which are meant to ground 2030 Agenda’s principles in practice, be different from that of MDGs and truly support sustainable development and social justice?

And lastly, we would like to ask about the monitoring process: All too often, the monitoring of national policies and programmes are too narrow in scope, thereby leaving behind or perpetuating the marginalization of groups such as the adolescents and young people, people living with HIV; people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities; people with disabilities; indigenous people; migrants, among others who are made invisible and vulnerable, due to lack of information about their realities. How will governments ensure that data and statistics reflect and tackle the main challenges of those who lack opportunities, lack education, lack resources?

Thank you.