ISPE EAG
INTERATIONAL
SOCIETY FOR POVERTY ELIMINATION ECONOMIC
ALLIANCE GROUP
Briefing # 3: AAAA and SDG – So What Can We Do Next?
Global Call to World Leaders, Representatives of 193 UN Member States, 9
Major Groups, other CSOs’ and other Stakeholders.
By Lanre Rotimi and Charles Sheke. 14 August 2015
We
celebrate achievements so far moving forward Post 2015 Development Agenda. Giant
Strides have been made and much has been achieved. However, much more remains
to be done. We now have SDG that has been agreed in August and could be adopted
in September 2015 during the 70th UN General Assembly.
In Briefings #1 and #2, we focused on need to
answer HOW Questions now in the Finance for Development, FfD and Post 2015
Processes. It is
pertinent to note that the latest outcome document, Transforming our World: The
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, improves on language and text. This is
commendable. However, improvements where it matters the most - answer
to HOW questions is still missing.
It is a puzzle that many UN Staff including Experts with responsibility
for Public Communication of Addis Ababa Action Agenda, AAAA and Sustainable
Development Goals, SDG issues as well as Technical Experts in UNDESA, FfD
Office, ECOSOC Office, EOSG and OPGA etc are aware that: many people outside
New York – in communities in 193 UN Member States tend not to know what is
going on in New York in terms of AAAA and SDG; there are gaps in AAAA and SDG
that need to be filled and disconnect that needs to be linked; and that NOW is
the time to think ahead about - How to promote and protect an exciting Post
2015 Development Agenda; How to mobilize for Implementation Impact and How to
mobilize for Global Collective Action driven by Collective Action at Sub-national,
National, Sub-regional and Regional levels; yet these same UN Staff and
Representatives of 193 UN Member States seek to avoid or evade answer to FfD
and Post 2015 Processes How questions that we have consistently raised.
So What Can We Do Next?
There are many knotty and sensitive outstanding issues in the AAAA and
SDG documents whose successful resolution greatly determine if the AAAA and SDG
will be Vision and Words that do not become Action or Vision and Words that are
Action Plans with Action. Yes, AAAA and SDG are scheduled for adoption by World
Leaders on 25 September 2015. However World Leaders will be doing our Fragile
Planet Great Service, if additional time is given to the successful resolution
of these knotty and sensitive outstanding issues. If World Leaders have to wait
till November or December 2015 to adopt AAAA and SDG documents with little or
no gaps and disconnects, this will be a very worthwhile wait indeed.
The AAAA and SDG documents that are finally adopted must demonstrate
that indeed Lessons have been Learnt from the first 70 years of the UN and that
in the next 5 years Reforms are Designed and Delivered to produce a UN as
International Institution fit for the 21st Century, thus ensuring
that in 70 years when the generation then look back they would indeed thank
this generation for taking the Right Decisions on AAAA and SDG.
Big Questions
From now till World Leaders adopt AAAA and
SDG before the end of 2015, ACTION on the part of Stakeholders in each
Community in each of the 193 Member States is the Key because as a Stakeholder –
What you do and What you say is GOING to Influence the Process leading to the
AAAA and SDG document that is finally adopted.
Stakeholders must ensure clear delineation
of Rights, Duties and Responsibilities of each AAAA and SDG Stakeholder. In the
AAAA and SDG document that is finally adopted, it must be clear What each
Stakeholder in going to do?, that is, Who is going to do What?; Who is going to
provide What Fund?; Who is responsible for mobilizing What Fund?; Exactly How
is each Agenda Item going to be Implemented? Exactly How is the Implementation
of each Agenda item going to be Monitored and Evaluated?
It will be grave error of putting the cart
before the horse to assume that these knotty and sensitive issues can be
avoided or evaded at this time. It is wishful thinking to assume that the
authorities could go ahead to persuade or pressure World Leaders to adopt AAAA
and SDG as is, despite their flaws and failures, on 25 September 2015 as
scheduled and move forward to try to reach the over 7 Billion People in our
World today within 7 days of the adoption of AAAA and SDG in the vain hope of
mobilizing Action for Delivery of AAAA and SDG that could be successful on
sustainable basis.
Achieving Result on Sustainable Basis
UN Executives and Staff, 193 Member States Leaders and Bureaucrats
need to recognize that some Results could be achieved if World Leaders adopt
AAAA and SDG as is, on 25 September 2015 and move forward as scheduled. However,
this type of
Result is likely to have minimal impact on the successful resolution of real
and complex World Political and Cultural; Economic and Financial; Social and
Environmental; Peace and Security; Religious and Moral problems on the ground
in the specific context of each Community in each of the 193 Member States. The
implication is that moving forward without resolving knotty and sensitive AAAA
and SDG outstanding issues, is likely to have catastrophic consequences for
Citizens on both Developed and Developing Countries sides in our World today.
UN Executives and Staff, 193 Member States Leaders and Bureaucrats
need to recognize that Amazing Positive Results on Sustainable basis could be
achieved if World Leaders adopt AAAA and SDG documents in November or December
2015 that effectively answer above Big Questions and in ways that properly and
practically address, from Village to Global levels in each of the 193 Member
States, the following issues:-
1.
Development Impact
2.
Development Effectiveness
3.
Development Results
4.
Development Learning
5.
Inclusion
6.
Proportional Benefit
7.
Delineation of Responsibilities, Duties and Rights
8.
Universal Values
9.
Sustainability
As long as this is not done, the probability is high that AAAA and
SDG will end up as Vision and Words that Do Not Become Action. It is our prayer
that this does not become the case in reality because in rejecting Ordered
Change that promote and protect Coordination, Collaboration and Cooperation in
accelerating Stakeholders on Road to Boom, we make inevitable, Disordered
Change that promote and protect Distrust, Corruption, Injustice and Inequality
in accelerating Stakeholders on Road to Doom.
Powerlessness
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Many Stakeholders in Communities in each of the 193 UN Member
States are looking up to UN Executives and Staff to solve their National and
International Development Cooperation problems. The UN Executives and Staff in
turn are looking up to Stakeholders in Communities, particularly Civil Society
including Academia, Media, Women Groups, Youth Groups, CBOs’, NGOs’,
Traditional Institutions, Religious Institutions, Labour Unions, Student Unions,
Market Men and Women, Organized Private Sector etc to strengthen its hand in
the work towards helping to solve National and International Development
Cooperation problems on the ground in 193 Member Countries. The AAAA and SDG
must break this Viscous Circle of Powerlessness.
Root Problems
Our study finding is that root problems of coordination, collaboration
and cooperation worsened by root problems of leadership and followership make
root problems of hunger, poverty, inequality, terrorism, corruption etc appear
insoluble.
To solve these complex root problems on successful and sustainable
basis, Stakeholders in the Economy of each of the 193 UN Member States need to
recognize that:-
1.
Root problems on Planning Side - Research, Planning, Data;
Implementation Side - Implementation; Evaluation Side - Monitoring, Evaluation,
Assessment; Learning Side - Learning and Results; Accountability Side -
Transparency, Accountability, Citizens / Stakeholders Participation.
2.
Root problems of Common Definition of Goals, Targets, Indicators,
Advocacy, Development Research, Standards.
3.
Root problems of SMART OVI - Specific: Measurable and Unambiguous:
Attainable and Sensitive; Relevant and Easy to Collect; Time Bound Objectively
Validated Indicators - OH2A2T2LRP: Ownership, Alignment, Accountability, Transparency,
Transformation, Leadership, Learning, Results, Participation.
4.
Root problems of Common Approach
need to be Jointly tackled within Sub-national, National / Sub-regional
/ Regional / Global Collective ACTION for Political Stability, Economic
Stability, Financial Stability, Peace and Security and Fighting Corruption
within Integrated Solutions - Technical, Security, Political, Economic,
Financial, Spiritual and Technology.
Once Stakeholders produce credible Action Plans with ACTION, through
AAAA and SDG that address all outstanding knotty and sensitive issues,
Implementation of the Action Agenda Items in AAAA and SDG cannot be thwarted
for lack of Resources - Influence, Science, Technology, Innovation, Manpower,
Funding, Spiritual, (Land and Water for Food and Agriculture).
As long as Non Integrated Solutions continue to be sought to complex
National and International Development problems through Multiple Approaches
with weak / no theory and weak / no practice, Stakeholders in each of the 193
UN Member States shall continue to dance around National and International Development
issues / problems, with ultimate catastrophic consequences.
The good news is that adequate Integrated Solutions and One Worldwide
Approach that are sufficiently All Embracing, All Inclusive and Ambitious,
exist and are available to Governments, International Institutions and Partners
in the Economy of each of the 193 Member States.
AAAA and SDG for both Developed
and Developing Countries
It is erroneous to assume that it is only Developing Countries that need
help implementing AAAA and SDG – No Developed Countries and International
Institutions including UN Agencies, World Bank Group and IMF need help too. It is
erroneous to assume Developed Countries are participating in AAAA and SDG as
Act of Charity and Morality to support Developing Countries – No Developed
Countries have Decayed Infrastructure and Decayed Systems and need to fully
implement all 17 / 21 SDG as One as Act of Economic Well Being and National
Security. These errors need to be identified and tackled if the above Root
problems are to be identified and tackled successfully.
Needed Reforms
Each of the 193 UN Member States needs to make
minimum certain levels of continuous improvements in Economic Employment and Empowerment,
Growth and Development; Governance, Anti-Corruption, Conflict Resolution and
Religious Affairs; Data Management; Partnership Platforms and Communication
Management, if it is to make serious inroads into poverty elimination and
environmental sustainability. To do that requires partnership within each UN
Member Country by the public and private sectors at Community, Local Government,
State Government and National Government levels and internationally, a partnership
between the UN Member Country and Countries in its Sub-region, Region and rest
of the World.
These national and international partnerships
need to be re-established where it exists, established where it does not exist;
nurtured for empowerment, growth development and sustainability within National
Sustainable Development Strategy, NSDS, including the entire National
Government Reform Program, All State Governments Reform Program, All Local
Governments Reform Program and each community of each Local Government Reform
Program in the specific UN Member Country.
The Stakeholders in these Reforms need to be Strengthened
by Internal Consultants and External Consultants who have required levels of
Hard Competences – Learning and Skills and Soft Competences – Character,
Courage and Mindset to support each Stakeholder to acquire and sustain minimum
certain levels of Hard Competences and Soft Competences required to achieve
AAAA and SDG Goals and Targets that their specific Institution and or Sector
have been saddled with responsibility to achieve.
Doing More with Same
UN Executives and Staff are expecting
Stakeholders to come to the September 2015 Summit with Commitments on How to
take AAAA and SDG forward and that from the September Summit to the Paris
Summit Action is the Key. The problem with this approach is that it assumes
that all necessary arrangements for effectively Mobilizing Peoples Voices and
Aspirations in each Community in each of the 193 member Countries can just be
left to happen and that they can just do their best in the hope that this will
be good enough to achieve AAAA and SDG Vision Ambitions. Are they really doing
their Best? Are they actually Learning Lessons from Lessons Learnt? Can fine-tunings
not be made to do more with same and in the process significantly improve
Stakeholder coordination, collaboration and cooperation? We urge UN Executives
and Staff to Reflect on these questions and do the needful.
Conclusion
The gaps and disconnect in AAAA and
SDG due to flaws and failures in FfD and Post 2015 Processes suggest that this
assumption is not likely to hold true in reality. If UN Executives and Staff as
well as Developed Countries Leaders and Bureaucrats continue to over celebrate
the successes of FfD and Post 2015 Processes thus far while Developing
Countries Leaders and Bureaucrats and CSO – particularly NGOs’ and CBOs’
Executives and Staff continue to bemoan or overlook their disappointments, the
probability is that Village to Global Stakeholders will continue with Business
as Usual while taking chance that World problems will fizzle out or accept our
lot should catastrophe occur – starting with Global Recession that could make
that of 1930s’ Child’s play.
If UN Executives and Staff as well as
Developed Countries Leaders and Bureaucrats decide to put the horse before the
cart and change to Business Unusual as recommended in the Synthesis Report, the
probability is high that bright prospects of success implementing AAAA and SDG
that has all is’ doted and all t’s crossed would become reality unleashing
unprecedented Prosperity on successful and sustainable basis in our World.
UN Executive and Staff; Developed
Countries Leaders and Bureaucrats; Developing Countries Leaders and Bureaucrats
and CSO Executives and Staff have a choice to make from the above options. No choice
is a choice.
Our Suggestion: UN Executives and Staff can help 193 Member States; CSOs’ and
other Stakeholders make the Right Choice if UNDESA, FfD Office, ECOSOC Office,
EOSG and OPGA accept to jointly nudge all remaining Stakeholders to address all
issues raised in this Policy Briefings and on time.
God Bless UN.
God Bless our World.
Contact:
Lanre Rotimi
Director General
International Society for Poverty
Elimination /
Economic Alliance Group
Akure – Nigeria, West Africa.
M: +234-8162469805
