The United Nations (UN) yesterday held a consultation workshop at the Arthur Chung International Convention Centre, Liliendaal with government officials, civil society and non-governmental organisation to draft the next cycle of the development goals.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release, the consultation is aimed at assisting the UN to define the future global development framework to succeed the expiring 2015 millennium development goals (MDGs) which was prepared for a term of five years.
Specifically, for the Caribbean, the emphasis is on a multi-country sustainable development as a unit and after consultations are completed in each territory, there would be a discussion of the compiled multi-country meetings scheduled for December in Trinidad and Tobago.
After that meeting, UN Resident Coordinator, Khadija Musa said, there would be further refinement and consultations on the document by the individual countries. The idea, Musa said is to have a national buy-in and ownership of the document prior to deadline of the document launch in 2017.
Further Musa said, the UN believes the interdependency and interconnectivity of the world should be captured within these goals so as to benefit all and as it relates to the Caribbean, there should be thematic ties such as climate change and economic trade to the benefit of each member state.
The information gathered in the process, GINA said, is used by the UN as a tool through which the organisation can provide assistance to governments while simultaneously, the MDG “lines up the UN priority with governments’ priority over the next five years.”
