Overview

Program Format

The summit will include plenary and parallel sessions, aiming to facilitate an in-depth discussion on the specific practices and methods employed by NGOs and experts of diverse backgrounds, sharing experiences and challenges that are met on the road. A special session of women parliamentarians from around the world will be held as one of the parallel sessions, where the MDGs’ progress and commitments to achieve the SDGs of respective countries will be discussed. The forum will come up with a final declaration, reflecting the major points discussed at each session, which will be made into a report to be submitted to the UN’s relevant agencies and other stakeholders.

The Istanbul Summit will start on Friday, 30 May 2014 with an opening reception. The next day on 31 May 2014, the Summit will kick off and there will be an award ceremony for the Peace Projects, which is another international initiative of the Journalists and Writers Foundation. The award ceremony will be followed by the plenary session entitled “Civil Society and Development Goals.” During the following sessions in the afternoon, possible UN Sustainable Development Goals will be discussed in eight parallel sessions on poverty, women’s empowerment, health, environmental sustainability, education, food security, water supply and sanitation, economic development, and finally, peace and good governance. In the parallel sessions, there will be a chance for some NGOs to deliver oral statements in three minutes. NGOs will be eligible to make statements after they register to the related sessions on the Summit’s website, istanbulsummit.org. On the second day of the Summit, the second plenary session entitled “Making the New Agenda Work” will be held with the participation of all participants. The following will be the closing session during which a “Final Declaration” will be announced.

Issues and Topics

Plenary Sessions will be held in a panel format where all participants are welcome to join the conversation on these issues:

• Civil Society and Development Goals
• Making the New Agenda Work

Also, there will be 8 thematic and 1 special session for parliamentarians, on the proposed SDGs, which have been debated at various UN platforms and meetings. The topics of the discussion panels are:

• Poverty
• Women’s Empowerment
• Health
• Environmental Sustainability
• Education
• Food Security, Water Supply and Sanitation
• Economic Development
• Peace and Good Governance