Sixth Session of the Open Working Group (OWG) of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Panelists Selwin Hart, Caribbean Development Bank, and Debapriya Bhattacharya, Centre for Policy Dialogue, offered opening remarks and engaged in a discussion with the OWG. Hart presented on the current context of SIDS, including their unique circumstances of energy, climate change, oceans, finance vulnerabilities. He noted that the special challenges for these countries include their small size, remoteness and insularity. Bhattacharya suggested that taking LDC status as the “founding element for concern” would capture LLDCs, SIDS, conflict-affected, fragile, environmentally vulnerable and African countries. He raised the need to determine the balance among the three dimensions of sustainable development, which have been joined by a proposed fourth dimension on governance, and noted the traditional “primacy” of economic thinking. He also noted that an accountability mechanism depends on data, while data availability is not just a technical issue but also a political issue in many countries.

The OWG completed its discussion of this agenda item at the conclusion of the morning session, and will reconvene on Friday to discuss ‘Human rights, the right to development, and global governance,’ and hear the Co-Chairs’ concluding remarks on OWG 6.