New tool launched for tracking post-2015 Development Agenda activities worldwide

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The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has launched a new knowledgebase, 'Post-2015 Policy and Practise' for tracking international activities related to the post-2015 Development Agenda. Funding .

Features of the Post-2015 Policy & Practice knowledgebase include:

• Summaries of activities (publications, meetings, statements and projects) by a range of actors, and an option to search the summaries by several categories (post-2015 theme, region, actor, action or issue);
• An archive of all posts to the site, organized by date;
• A clickable world map, enabling users to view the latest news by region (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, Near East, Northern America, and South West Pacific);
• A link to subscribe to POST2015-L to join our moderated community announcement lists for policy-makers and practitioners;
• A link to the most recent Post-2015 Update, a periodic newsletter of recent posts to the knowledgebase, distributed via email through the listserv;
• A Calendar of upcoming international events related to the post-2015 development agenda;
• A link to our iCalendar, which automatically updates your own calendar program with upcoming post-2015-related events; and
• A link to our RSS feed.

Background on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

At the High-level Plenary Meeting of the 65th Session of the UN General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), held in New York in September 2010, governments called for accelerating progress towards achieving the MDGs, and for thinking about ways to advance the UN development agenda beyond 2015. In response, the UN undertook several initiatives aimed at developing a Post-2015 Development Agenda, including: setting up a UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda; launching a High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda; appointing a Special Advisor on Post-2015 Development Planning; and launching national and global thematic consultations.

Other processes that will feed into the Post-2015 discussions include: the work of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals, a 30-member group mandated by the outcome document of Rio+20 to prepare a proposal on sustainable development goals for consideration by the UNGA at its 68th session; regional consultations by the Regional Economic Commissions, which will result in a report on regional perspectives on the Post-2015 Development Agenda; inputs from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, set up by the UN Secretary-General in August 2012 to support global problem solving in critical areas of sustainable development; and input from businesses and the private sector through the UN Global Compact.

Given the large number of actors and themes involved with setting the post-2015 development agenda, IISD began tracking the process in the second half of 2012 to help increase the transparency of policy making. Thanks to financial assistance from the Danish Government, we began publishing a bi-weekly Post-2015 Update, which is distributed through our POST2015-L listserv, in October 2012. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation is making it possible for us to continue this work in 2013 and to develop a dedicated knowledgebase, Post-2015 Policy & Practice, to help policy makers track the activities feeding into this process.