AIDS Advocacy Alert

The Post 2015 Development Framework

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What you can do now (#2)
NOVEMBER 2014

Two URGENT ACTIONS you can take now

For the past several months, national, regional and international discussions and consultations have been taking
place regarding the design of a new development agenda to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
from 2000. The Post-2015 discussion has included a broad array of perspectives, ambitions, needs and priorities in
the context of a rapidly changing landscape. At this key moment, it is critical that like-minded civil society
advocates present a united and coherent voice on the future of the development agenda.
The Report of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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On September 10 , the General Assembly adopted a draft resolution deciding that the proposals contained in the
Report of the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals shall be the basis for the integration
of the SDGs into the post-2015 development agenda, while recognizing fully that other inputs may also be
considered in this intergovernmental negotiation process at the 69th session of the GA".
The Report of the Secretary General
The Secretary Generals Synthesis Report will be released by the end of this year, and negotiations for the
September 2015 Summit will begin in January 2015.
Post-2015 Summit Modalities and Civil Society Participation
Many advocates have called for an inclusive post-2015 process that meaningfully involves civil society. Ambassador
Ashe, President of the General Assembly, has urged civil society to continue engaging in the post-2015 process
over the next year. He also stated that the incoming President of the General Assembly for the 69th session will
continue with similar interactive sessions to the ones during 2014 to ensure civil society participation.
The post-2015 Summit will take place on September 21-23, 2015. The draft resolution from September 2014
includes provisions for civil society and Major Groups in the context of the Summit itself, its interactive dialogues
and preparatory processes as well as a two-day civil society hearing to be held no later than June 2015. The
modalities for intergovernmental negotiations leading up to the Summit, including who will chair the negotiations
and modalities for civil society participation, will be decided before the end of this year. Some details and key
dates for the negotiation meetings have been shared by the co-facilitators

TWO URGENT ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE NOW:

1) Distribute and endorse the attached letter (annex 1). Send your support to: Post2015MDG@Icaso.org.
This letter with all endorsements will be sent to the UN Missions in NY, as well as to the UN Secretary
General, the Co-Facilitators and the current and the next President of the General Assembly.
2) Use the sample letter (annex 2) to reach out to your Minister of Foreign Affairs (or equivalent) to ensure
they support meaningful involvement of civil society in the post-2015 process.
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This summary and guidance are based on IWHCs Post-2015 e-newsletter (November 3, 2014) and an Advocacy Guidance on
SRHR from CHANGE.

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Additionally, you can follow up on some of the key actions listed below:
1.

Find out who in the government is responsible for the post-2015 process at the capital level and at the
United Nations level in your countrys Mission to the UN and which individuals have attended OWG
meetings. This might very well be people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; many countries also have a
'Post-2015 Taskforce'.
a.

Reach out to your governments to debrief with them about the OWG outcome document. Work
with other organizations in your country to urge your government to resist efforts to streamline
the OWG goals and targets, and encourage them to continue pushing for the inclusion of
marginalized groups and key populations, and the inclusion of sexual rights in the post-2015
development agenda, for example in indicators under the health and gender goals

2.

Contact the persons responsible for the post-2015 process and try to meet them, asking them what are
their goals for the post-2015 process specifically it is important to find out what are their priorities, what
they oppose and their positions for the targets and indicators.

3.

Work with other organizations in your country to encourage your government to support:
Civil society access to all official meetings, information and documents throughout the
intergovernmental process;
Opportunities for civil society to submit written and oral contributions and recommendations; and
Opportunities for civil society to organize side events.

4.

Key issues you could raise include:

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR): Work with other organizations in your
country to reach out to your governments to debrief with them about the OWG outcome.
Encourage them to continue pushing for sexual rights in the post-2015 development agenda.
i. SRHR: The governments who have already vocally supported SRHR: Thank them and tell
them that we are working with other governments. Ask them if they can also try to reach
out to other governments, for example those governments that were supportive at the
regional International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). Thank them,
and ask to continue and to reach out to others to support.
ii. SRH +RR (+qualifiers): The governments which talked about sexual and reproductive
health and reproductive rights (RR): persuade them to talk about SRHR in full if they are
not able to do so, let them speak up about SRH and RR with qualifiers. Qualifiers could
include in accordance with ICPD, in accordance with Beijing Platform of Action, in
accordance with Rio+20, in accordance with The World we Want.
iii. SRH only: If your government only wants SRH, you could ask them to support SRH and RR
and to try to persuade those who want qualification to drop the qualification.
iv. Opposing SRH: If you are sure your country actively opposes the inclusion of SRH or does
not mention it at all: Approach your government only if you have a working relationship
with them already and feel confident to speak to them.

HIV: Work with other organizations in your country to reach out to your governments to debrief
with them about the OWG outcome. HIV is included as a target under the health goal, and UNAIDS
has announced efforts to end the epidemic. Encourage your government to promote the inclusion
of marginalized groups, including key populations, in the implementation of the SDGs.
i. Governments who are have already vocally supported the inclusion of HIV: Thank them
and tell them that we are working with other governments. Ask them if they can also try
to reach out to other governments, for example those governments that were supportive
or are wavering in support. Very supportive governments can be asked if they would

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contact other governments and ask them to continue their support. Thank them, and ask
to continue and to reach out to others to support.
ii. Silent on HIV: If your government is silent so far on HIV but was supportive in other
meetings: ask the capital staff to make sure that the Mission at the UN speaks up.
iii. Opposing HIV: If you are sure your country actively opposes the inclusion of HIV or does
not mention it at all: Approach your government only if you have a working relationship
with them already and feel confident to speak to them.

5.

Access to medicines: Work with other organizations in your country to reach out to your
governments to debrief with them about the OWG outcome. Work with other organizations in
your country to encourage the government to advocate for the greatest flexibility for the use of
agreements such as TRIPS to promote access to medicines.
i. Governments that support access to medicines: Thank them and tell them that we are
working with other governments. Ask them if they can also try to reach out to other
governments, for example those governments that were supportive or are wavering in
support. Very supportive governments can be asked if they would contact capital and ask
them to continue their support. Thank them, and ask to continue to advocate to support
access to medicines for example via intellectual property agreements like TRIPS.
ii. Governments that have been silent: Ask them to support access to medicines, including
vaccines. Explain that we are working with other countries and that there is support for
the inclusion of access to medicines. Ask them to advocate for the greatest flexibility for
the use of agreements such as TRIPS to promote access to medicines.
iii. Governments that oppose the inclusion of access to medicines: If you reach out to your
government, explain that means of implementation have included the Global Fund, and
that low-income countries typically receive large amounts of aid.

Share your experiences and success stories by writing to Post2015MDG@Icaso.org

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Annex 1: Letter from Major Groups to Facilitators of the Post-2015 Intergovernmental Process (send your
endorsement to Post2015MDG@Icaso.org)
10 November 2014
HE Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya
HE David Donoghue, Permanent Representative of Ireland
Re: Congratulations regarding your appointment as co-facilitators and engagement of Major Groups and
Stakeholders of civil society in the upcoming SDGs / Post-2015 process
Your Excellencies
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As members of the Major Groups of Women, Children & Youth, Workers & Trade Union, NGOs, Indigenous
Peoples, Science & Technology, Local Authorities and Farmers we wish to congratulate you on your appointments
as co-facilitators to lead open, inclusive, and transparent consultations on the post-2015 development agenda,
including the organization and modalities for the intergovernmental negotiations and the remaining issues related
to the Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda."
We appreciated the opportunity to work with both of you, in your various capacities, during the deliberations in
the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and we look very much forward to
working with you again during the future negotiations.
In this regard, we are cognizant of the call in the outcome document for the UN General Assembly Special Event in
September 2013 for a transparent intergovernmental process, which will include inputs from all stakeholders
including civil society, scientific and knowledge institutions, parliaments, local authorities, and the private sector.
In addition we note that paragraph 8 of the draft resolution on the Organization of the United Nations Summit for
the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda Invites other relevant stakeholders, including
parliamentarians, academia, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, Major Groups and the
private sector, to participate in the Summit, including in its interactive dialogues and preparatory process
We therefore wish to ask you to do your utmost to ensure during the negotiations on organization and modalities
that the preparatory process will allow the full participation of non-governmental civil society organizations as
facilitated by the Major Groups & Stakeholders that is at the very least comparable to the participation that we
enjoyed during the sessions of the OWG. This would include not only being called on to make interventions in
meetings during the preparatory process but also pro-active engagement through regular sessions with you as CoFacilitators as well as Member States.
Please be assured that we stand ready to make our contribution to the successful development of the SDGs and
the post-2015 development agenda, and would appreciate to be informed on the stakeholder engagement
modalities in due time so we can mobilise our constituencies.
Yours sincerely,
The Organising Partners of Major Groups (below) and their constituencies and member organisations in over 150
countries

Womens Major Group Isis Alvarez, Eleanor Blomstrom, Sascha Gabizon and regional OPs, contact@womenmajorgroup.org
Children & Youth Major Group, Aashish Kullar khullar.aashish@gmail.com; Workers & Trade Union Major Group, Matt
Simonds, Matt.Simonds@ituc-csi.org; NGO Major Group Leida Rijnhout, Jeffery Huffines, Leida.rijnhout@eeb.org jvhuffines@gmail.com;
Indigenous Peoples Major Group, Galina Angarova and Roberto Borrero danika@treatycouncil.org angalya@gmail.com; Local Authorities Major
Group, Natalne Poisson n.poisson@uclg.org
Farmers Major Group, Luisa Volpe Luisa.Volpe@wfo-oma.org; Science & Technology Major Group, Anne-Sophie Stevance annesophie.stevance@icsu.org

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Annex 2: Template Letter from civil society to Minister of Foreign Affairs (or equivalent)

Mr/Ms [insert name]

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Your Excellency

On behalf of [insert name of organization or group], we are respectfully writing to you to request our involvement
in the preparation for the upcoming Post-2015 discussions. Specifically, we would like to request that your office
supports civil society access to all official meetings, information and documents throughout the intergovernmental
process in New York, including upcoming negotiations.
The Post-2015 process represents an important opportunity for all stakeholders to identify sustainable
development priorities that are evidence-based and rights-based. [insert your organizations priorities for the Post2015 process]
As an example:
[Specifically for our organization, it is important that ending AIDS remains a sub-goal and that specific targets and
indicators are agreed on how effectively we can prevent new HIV infections, and in providing treatment, care and
support to all those in need. We also encourage you to continue pushing for the inclusion of marginalized groups
and key populations, and the inclusion of sexual rights in the post-2015 development agenda].
As a way to ensuring our government plays a leadership role in the negotiations in New York, we would like to
invite to create a diverse, multidisciplinary and, multi-stakeholders 'Post-2015 Taskforce'.
In closing, we would welcome an opportunity to meet with you and any relevant staff at the Ministry to discuss
these issues. We offer to organize a meeting with key stakeholders and contact your office to find a mutually
agreeable date and time
Sincerely,

Your Name
Your Organization
[Contact information]

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