On December 4, the UN Secretary-General (SG) released a Synthesis Report on the Post 2015 Development Agenda, it is a key input into the negotiation of the post-2015 development agenda, which will continue from January to July 2015. The report, entitled “The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet”, is “a universal call to action to transform the world beyond 2015”. The 45-page report consists of 6 sections, with the main section on Framing the New Agenda, which includes six essential elements for delivering on the SDGs, as well as sections on means of implementation of the agenda, which includes financing, technology and capacity building, and delivering the agenda as a shared responsibility through partnership.

APWLD welcomes the SG’s synthesis report’s clear emphasis on the universal principles of human rights, including the right to development and recognising the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples; common but differentiated responsibilities; and an aim to achieve climate justice. It rightly emphasises the current challenge of gross inequality and climate change that the world currently faces, and the need for a bold commitment to a transformative development agenda. Although it includes some recommendations that are more progressive than other key inputs into the post-2015 development agenda, particularly on the issues of trade, financing and accountability, the report fails to challenge the neoliberal framework and the imperative of economic growth and does not ultimately commit to dismantling the rules and systems that enable the gross inequalities that threaten our future.

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