NEW YORK — World leaders have come and gone. In their wake, the nitty-gritty work gets done.
Those left at UN headquarters—ambassadors, delegates, UN officials and staff—are toiling away on hundreds of resolutions from mundane matters like the organization’s bi-annual budget of $5.5 billion, to ending wars and promoting human rights. Last year the General Assembly adopted 316 resolutions.
The most important item this year is the new development framework that will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Negotiations have been ongoing for nearly two years on what should be the focus of the post-2015 development agenda.
Earlier this year, a working group of the General Assembly, in which most UN member states participated, proposed 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They tried to strike a balance between objectives of poor and wealthy countries.
Poor countries want concrete commitments that will improve the lives of persons in the developing world. Wealthy countries want to limit their commitments, while at the same time promote Western values and norms.
Abortion groups are among those fiercely campaigning for a piece of the pie, and they have some countries on their side. They want sexual and reproductive health to be a priority in order to receive more money to expand their operations and lobby for greater access to abortion. They have mounted a UN system-wide campaign to make abortion a human right.
Last week, during a UN meeting, a Swiss delegate asked Nicole Ameline, the chair of a committee that monitors the implementation of the UN treaty on women’s rights, if the committee had a position on abortion, specifically in cases of rape or disability. Her reply was obscure. She said the committee had “no particular requirements” on abortion, but then hesitantly said the committee believed in those cases states should “…potentially… allow for an abortion.”
“We believe our position is defensible,” she added.
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Negotiations for the final post-2015 development agenda begin in earnest early next year to be adopted in September. The ambassadors of Kenya and Ireland will facilitate the negotiations. A Secretary General’s report on the consultations and activities in the past two years is eagerly anticipated next month. The report is meant as a springboard for negotiations, but is likely to reflect the wishes of donor countries to which the Secretary General is accountable.
Wealthy countries have a distinct advantage in all UN negotiations. Not only do they contribute more money to the UN system thereby influencing the perspective of UN staff and officials—16 member states contribute 80% of the UN budget, and 128 contribute just over 1% of the UN budget—they also provide poor countries with bilateral assistance, and therefore expect to have more of a say on how their money gets spent. Moreover, wealthy countries have exponentially higher numbers of better-trained personnel in New York than poor countries. UN negotiations can be discouraging to delegates from the developing world. Given these odds, their efforts necessarily converge on getting assistance.
While wealthy countries have more at stake in terms of investment in the UN system, poor countries rely on UN support and guidance for their very survival. That is why the post-2015 development agenda is such a powerful tool. Whatever makes its way into the new scheme will become a focal point of UN efforts, government investments, and roughly $130 billion in official development assistance every year.
Reprinted with permission from C-Fam.org.