Overview
Objectives and Expected Outcome
The Journalists and Writers Foundation, with its Women’s and Abant Platform, plans to undertake an international summit entitled “Istanbul Summit: Women’s Perspective on UN Post-2015 Development Agenda”. The general aim of this summit is to contribute to the UN Post-2015 Development Goals and to create awareness across societies worldwide. The specific aim is to open the floor to women’s perspectives and opinions on the proposed SDGs by bringing together women participants from across the world. The Summit will bring together women representatives of CSOs and women parliamentarians from across the world with diverse backgrounds. Observers, male or female, are still required to register for the Summit and pay the registration fee (even if they will only participate in the Summit as an observer).
By organizing such a summit, the Journalists and Writers Foundation will provide a ground for networking and experience-sharing for NGOs from around the world to express their views, policies, and work on the chosen subject. This year’s topic, “UN Post-2015 Development Agenda” intends to evaluate the year-long discussions on the formulation of SDGs at a global gathering of women. The summit also aims to provide a follow-up to the 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women to be held in March 2014 that will discuss the “Challenges and Achievements in the Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for Women and Girls.” It will discuss the issues from a different angle with wider participation by women NGO representatives. The summit is going to provide a venue for women to express and highlight their contributions to the implementation of the MDGs as well as their suggestions and opinions on the SDGs in the presence of prominent UN representatives and women parliamentarians.
The Istanbul Summit will provide opportunities for civil entities to express their views on the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda and will promote global cooperation between women NGO representatives and parliamentarians. We believe that the Istanbul Summit will be a great contribution to the making of a future vision for the UN development goals.
Issues and Topics
The sessions will be organized around three dimensions of the Agenda: Environmental, Economic and Social.
Moving from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era towards Post-2015 Development Agenda, global partnership is much more underlined during the priority transformation. Civil society has a significant role for unified dialogue on sustainable and inclusive development. CSOs play a key part as the international community transitions to the new agenda. In this respect, the development agenda issues related to interaction between CSOs and other stakeholders will be discussed in this plenary session.
The context for progress on development has been changing since the MDGs era. How it may continue to shift in the coming decades, and what this could mean for the partnerships that will be necessary to successfully implement post-2015 development agenda are notable. This session will focus on necessary action at the national and local level to effectively implement the new development agenda with a sustainable and inclusive development approach.
Also, there will be 8 working groups on the proposed SDGs, which have been debated at various UN platforms and meetings. The topics of the working groups are:
- Eradication poverty in MDG period;
- What should be done in post 2015 global development agenda to go further;
- Success stories, and failures around the globe;
- Specific policies in relation to women in eradicating poverty;
- Global economic policies to eradicate poverty;
- Changing rhetoric from charity to partnership;
- Creation of decent work: Transformation economies for jobs and inclusive growth.
- Prevent and eliminate all forms of violation against girls and women;
- Economic empowerment: Ensure equal right of women to own and inherit property, have legal rights on accessing economic activities, to ensure entrepreneurship activities;
- To eliminate legal, cultural and social obstacles for women to enter political, economic and public life;
- Enabling gender equality in employment ;
- Equal opportunities in decision making positions.
Documents: Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as well as Agenda 21, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Millennium Declaration
- Universal, affordable, accessible health insurance;
- End preventable infant and under 5 death;
- Decrease the maternal mortality;
- Increase universal sexual and reproductive health and rights;
- Reduce the burden of diseased from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases;
- Raising awareness on health, well-being at all ages;
- Impact of pharmaceutical companies on health policies.
- Importance of girl education and its benefit to societies;
- Increase to access and complete pre-primary education;
- Ensure every child regardless of circumstances completes primary education;
- Ensure every child access to middle school education;
- Increase technical and vocational education ;
- Quality education and employment;
- Lifelong education;
- Gender equality in education.
- Right to food: End hunger, food wasting and protect the right of everyone to have access to sufficient, safe, affordable and nutritious food;
- Agricultural policies and land grabbing,
- Agro –business and food security (GMOs -Genetically modified Organisms)
- Small farmers against agro-businesses
- Adopt sustainable fishing industry by way of protecting local fishing, against long distance fishing filets;
- Fresh water scarcity and impact of climate change over water resources;
- Provide universal access to safe drinking water at home and schools, health centers and refugee camps;
- Disseminate water technology, increase efficiency and sustainable use of water, especially in agriculture;
- Participation in water policies in local level.
- Environmental Movements & Climate justice
- Gender role in environmental and climate change policies;
- Enhancing environmental consciousness in society by way of education;
- Sustainable cities
- Combatting against consumption and population
- Energy, climate change, and environmental dilemma
- Protecting vulnerable sector of society (poor, women and children);
- Adverse impact of global economy on environmental and natural resources;
- Green energy & renewable energy.
- Right to development & economic fairness;
- Implementing sustainable development principle in local & central governmental bodies: Consider economic, social and environmental accounts in all decision making processes in local, and central governmental bodies;
- Corporate responsibilities;
- Economic globalization & trade policies
- Natural resource management (forest, soil, oceans, rivers, desertification, land degradation and drought);
- Public private partnership and privatization of public goods and resources;
- Inclusive growth / immigrants,
- Social security: protection of disabled & elderly people
Documents: Agenda 21 (1992), Rio Principles (1992) and Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002)
- Role of women in peace and security; peace making and post conflict management and women;
- Enhance economic and social rights: Right to have access drinking water, right to have healthy environment, right to have development; education, ext.
- Protection civil and political rights: Freedom of speech, association, peaceful protest and access to independent media and information;
- Increase public participation in political process and civic engagements in all levels;
- Reduce bribery and corruption and ensure officials can be held accountable;
- Right to access to trial in case of human rights abuses;
Possible points of discussion
- To what extent have the MDGs been achieved by May-2014?
- Which methods were best suited for reaching the designated goals? To what extent are these methods replicable and adaptable to different contexts?
- In the pre-2015 period, how did NGOs, governments, the media, local and international institutions, and intergovernmental organizations play a role in the achievement of the MDGs? To what extent have their experiences carried over in the evolving process relating to the SDG proposals?
- What has been and will be the role and contribution of women from civil society, government bodies, the media, and the private sector in achieving development goals?
- What have been the unforeseen local and global trends that have failed or impeded the efforts to achieve the MDGs? What kind of implications could they have for the SDGs?
- What could be the challenges in mobilizing grassroots level activism and cooperation among women who have the desire to work for their communities in the Post – 2015 era?
- How should a new framework reflect the particular needs of the local vis-a vis global? Is there any platform that combines the needs of both?
- Is it possible to build and sustain a global consensus for a new framework for the conceptualization of sustainable development goals?
- What could be the effective methods of extending global partnership and coordination between the parties?
- How can transparency and objectivity be provided in monitoring the whole development goal process?
- Do all the proposed goals adequately incorporate and stress women’s and girl’s rights?
- Is there any affirmative action plan that would reduce the gap between genders in all dimensions of the SDGs?
- Is the UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and other subsequent resolutions incorporated into the SDGs?
- How committed are governments to the implementation of the proposed SDGs? What is the role of parliaments in advancing especially women’s economic, social, and political rights in a given nation?
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