Background

In September 2000, building upon a decade of major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration. This declaration committed participating nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and set out a series of time-bound targets - with a deadline of 2015 - that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals are as follow: Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Achieving Universal Primary Education, Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women, Reducing Child Mortality, Improving Maternal Health, Combatting HIV/Aids, Malaria and Other Diseases, Ensuring Environmental Sustainability, and Global Partnership for Development.¹

Secretary General of the United Nations, H.E. Ban Ki-moon, in the 2013 MDG Report, states that “the Millennium Development Goals have been the most successful global anti-poverty push in history.” And yet, “the achievement of the MDGs has been uneven among and within countries.”²

MDGs brought a certain numerical criteria for each target and set the goal to reach these targets by the year 2015. For example, halving the proportion of people with an income of less than $1 a day between 1990 and 2015, reducing by two-thirds the number of child deaths under the age of 5; between 1990 and 2015, reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters; and, halving by 2015 the rate of population deprived of clean drinking water and basic hygiene needs. All of these target goals exemplify the MDGs’ concrete quantitative criteria.³How realistic the goals are, their applicability and ways of implementation after 2015, and the steps to be taken in the coming period for their implementation were discussed in recent years and will continue to be debated for a while.

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in July 2012 revealed the importance and benefit of such sustainable development targets that will be defined as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) after 2015. Numerous reports have been published and specific goals and targets have been proposed since the conference.⁴ The main topics related to these corresponding goals have been identified as “poverty,” “women’s empowerment,” “health,” “climate and environment,” “energy,” “education,” “food and water,” “economic development,” and lastly “peace and governance.”

As the deadline for achieving the MDGs approaches, relevant UN agencies and other stakeholders have been working on the post-2015 development agenda. This process will continue until the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2014.  Hence, The Journalists and Writers Foundation, which holds a General Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council, intends to contribute to this process by organizing a summit which will provide opportunities for NGOs worldwide to express their views, particularly women’s perspectives on the proposed SDGs.

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 around 600 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.

Background Papers

Istanbul Summit has compiled a series of important documents regarding  UN Millenium Development Goals and UN Post-2015 Development Agenda  

United Nations Millennium Declaration
We The Peoples
Global SD Report Executive Summary
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2013
High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (Post-2015 HLP)
UN Global Compact (UNGC)
UN Development Group (UNDG): The Global Conversation Begins

Websites

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview/
http://www.unicef.org/mdg/
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=1300
http://www.post2015.org/

1. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview/
2. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/mdg/the-millennium-development-goals-report-2013/
3. http://www.ldc4istanbul.org/uploads/BN_Bin_Yil_Kalkinma_Hedefleri.docx
4. Some of the reports: http://www.post2015hlp.org/the-report/,
http://unsdsn.org/resources/
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/mdg/global-conversation-begins/