5th Session of the Post-2015 Intergovernmental Negotiations (Follow-Up and Review)

The 5th Session of the intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda continued on Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at UN Headquarters in New York. In the morning, there was an interactive dialogue with Major Groups and other Stakeholders. In the afternoon, delegates delivered statements on the follow-up and review mechanism for the post-2015 development agenda, in response to the Co-Facilitators “Preliminary impressions on follow-up and review” issued on Tuesday afternoon.

Opening the interactive dialogue, Co-Facilitator Macharia Kamau (Kenya) said that the Co-Facilitators would “continue to champion” the access of Major Groups and other Stakeholders to the post-2015 negotiations. Representatives of Major Groups and other Stakeholders raised a number of key issues with regard to the follow-up and review mechanism for the post-2015 development agenda, including the need for transparency, inclusion, and a role for all stakeholders. There was a divergence of opinions on the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) with some arguing that they should not be used for the provision of essential public services that need universal access, such as water, sanitation and healthcare, and others saying that they can catalyze change.

In the afternoon, delegates responded to the Co-Facilitators’ “Preliminary impressions on follow-up and review.” Some delegations argued that the outcome document should stick to the principles and elements and not try to be over-prescriptive on the role of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). There did not seem to be any support for having two separate Secretariats – one for ECOSOC and one for the HLPF. There also was no support for having two HLPF meetings a year. There was, however, support for the involvement of Major Groups and other Stakeholders at all levels. There were many suggestions about how to organize the work of the HLPF along thematic lines, and Switzerland suggested that the timeline for the General Assembly portion of the HLPF be postponed from 2017 to 2019 to allow a review of the first five-years of implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.