6 A decent life for all: ending
poverty and providing a sustainable future
| (34747)
7075/13
COM(13) 92
| Commission Communication: "A decent life for all: ending poverty and giving the world a sustainable future"
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| Legal base | —
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| Document originated | 27 February 2013
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| Deposited in Parliament | 7 March 2013
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| Departments | International Development and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 19 March 2013
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| Discussion in Council | 27 May 2013 "Development" Foreign Affairs Council and 18 June 2013 Environment Council
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information requested
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Background
6.1 The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed
at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.[18]
They are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal
primary education; promote gender equality and empower women;
reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV and
AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability;
and develop a global partnership for development.
6.2 The MDGs, with each one's targets and indicators, are
set out in more detail at Annex of this chapter of our Report.
The target date for achievement is 2015.
The Rio+20 Conference
6.3 "Rio+20" is the short name for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
which took place in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 — 20 years
after the landmark 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The Rio+20 conference
was the biggest UN conference ever: world leaders, along with
thousands of participants from the private sector, NGOs and other
groups, came together to discuss how to reduce poverty, advance
social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more
crowded planet.
6.4 The official discussions focussed on two main themes:
how to build a green economy to achieve sustainable development
and lift people out of poverty; and how to improve international
coordination for sustainable development.
6.5 More than $513 billion was pledged to build
a sustainable future. At its conclusion, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said:
"Rio+20 has given us a solid platform to build
on. And it has given us the tools to build with. The work starts
now".[19]
The Commission Communication
6.6 This Communication sets out the Commission's
view on the international post-2015 development agenda: ending
poverty and ensuring that future prosperity and well-being are
sustainable. It brings together the debate about what international
framework should succeed the MDGs and the process to establish
new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) arising from the Rio+20
— where government leaders agreed that the new SDGs should
be coherent and integrated with the post-2015 development agenda.
6.7 The Commission notes that in autumn 2013,
a UN special event will take stock of the efforts made towards
achieving the MDGs, discuss ways to accelerate progress until
the MDG target year of 2015 and consider what could follow after
2015. The Commission first identifies the main global challenges
and opportunities. It then evaluates the success of the global
poverty eradication agenda and the experience of the MDGs thus
far, as well as outlining some of the key steps towards sustainable
development as agreed in Rio+20, and outlines key actions. It
then describes what the Commission sees as the challenges and
elements for a future framework that can be drawn from the experience
of the MDGs and the work stemming from Rio+20, in particular the
elaboration of SDGs, and indicates how these can be brought together
within relevant UN processes.
6.8 The Communication argues that the MDGs had
a significant and positive impact and outlines where there has
been some success in meeting their targets (e.g. on income and
access to safe drinking water). However, it also acknowledges
that many targets in the MDGs were not met and that there are
weaknesses and gaps in the MDGs as a framework for development.
6.9 The Commission also recognises that, alongside
the agreement to develop SDGs, there are other Rio+20 outcomes
driving international action and governance on sustainable development,
including institutional reform to promote stronger coherence and
coordination on sustainable development within the UN system.
6.10 The document includes two annexes: a comprehensive
table of current and forthcoming actions in the EU and internationally
that contribute to the implementation of Rio+ 20; and a summary
of a consultation exercise on the MDG review process and the outcomes
of Rio+20 held in summer 2012.
6.11 Building on the "fundamental link between
environmental sustainability and poverty eradication" the
Commission supports a single overarching framework and integration
of the MDG review and SDG process and highlights the future challenges
posed by climate change and resource scarcity, and their potential
on poverty eradication. That single framework should have five
"priority elements":
— meeting
basic living standards;
— promoting drivers for inclusive and sustainable
growth;
— ensuring sustainable management of natural
resources;
— upholding equality, equity and justice;
and
— peace and security.
6.12 The framework should:
— integrate
the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social
and environmental;
— recognise that poverty, prosperity and
well-being are multidimensional;
— cover basic human development, drivers
for sustainable and inclusive growth and sustainable management
of natural resources;
— address justice, equality and equity,
capturing issues relating to human rights, democracy, the rule
of law, empowerment of women and gender equality;
— have limited goals that are evidence-based,
apply universally but respect different national contexts;
— be developed in partnership with civil
society and private sector;
— have goals and targets for 2030 and include
a vision to 2050.
6.13 The Commission continues that, at the same
time, the framework should:
— underline
that responsibility for delivery is national but also that resources
need to be mobilised from domestic, international, public and
private sources; involve a range of national and international
actors, public and private in delivery; all countries should contribute
their fair share and the goals should induce stronger accountability;
— be accompanied by efforts to enhance
coherence at the institutional level; and
— be coherent with existing internationally-agreed
goals and targets.
6.14 In the immediate future, the Commission
wants the adoption of this Communication to be followed by a debate
with the Council and the European Parliament during the spring
of 2013. This debate should be around the development of a common
EU approach position on how the SDGs and the MDG review processes
should best be converged and integrated into a single process,
in order better to deliver a comprehensive, overarching post-2015
framework. Such a debate should:
— ensure
a comprehensive follow up to Rio+20 and guide the EU position
at the UN Open Working Group (OWG)[20]
on SDGs, which will report regularly to the UNGA; and
— contribute to the preparation of the
UN General Assembly Special Event on the MDGs in autumn 2013,
including the report of the Secretary-General and the UN High
Level Panel on post-2015, as well as the first meeting of the
High-Level Political Forum (HLPF).[21]
The Government's view
6.15 In their joint Explanatory Memorandum of
19 March 2013, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the
Department for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)
and her counterpart at the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (Richard Benyon), say that the Government strongly
supports the key message and policy position in favour of integrating
the MDG review and SDG processes towards one single set of goals,
focussed on eradicating poverty and embedding the principles of
sustainable development: the agendas of ending poverty and sustainable
development overlap significantly, and two separate sets of goals
could create confusion and competing demands. For these reasons,
they also welcome the joint working of the Commissioners for Environment
and Development, and the High Representative, in producing this
Communication; and say that it will be important that the Commission
and the External Action Service continue to work closely together
in the months and years to come.
6.16 The Ministers profess themselves broadly
content with the "elements" and "principles"
set out in the Communication, but also say that it will be "important
that the EU and its Member States maintain a high-level and flexible
approach while we engage in outreach and consultation with others,
and so that we are able to respond to, and engage constructively
in, the debate on the post-2015 development agenda over the next
3 years".
6.17 They note, in particular:
"the importance given to the enablers of poverty
eradication, such as absence of conflict, rule of law, transparency,
accountability and other elements of open societies and open economies.
Gender equality and the empowerment of all girls and women are
also fundamental to development. The UK strongly supports the
inclusion of sustainable management of natural resources across
the development agenda as a critical part of delivering sustainable
development."
6.18 The Ministers welcome the references to
"the need for a cross sector and international partnership
approach to designing and delivering the new framework",
and say:
"The Prime Minister has been clear that the
UK is committed to 'getting our own house in order' to help unlock
increased prosperity in the countries where the world's poorest
live."
6.19 With regard to the MDGs, the Ministers say:
"The simplicity and focus of the MDGs made them
a powerful advocacy tool and created a common vision and strategic
language through which the international community could rally.
This is why the Government agrees that the post-2015 agenda should
retain these qualities in a simple, compelling and ambitious new
framework with a limited number of goals."
6.20 With regard to the proposal in the Communication
that the new overarching framework should aspire to provide by
2030 "a decent life for all" and to eradicate poverty
wherever it is found, the Ministers say:
"The UK Government argues that the post-2015
framework should be focussed on eradicating extreme poverty achieved
through sustainable development — we must retain this focus
on the 1 billion people in this situation. Achieving this will
involve updating the goals and targets from the MDGs and addressing
some elements that were not included in the MDGs. "Finishing
the job" will also mean reaching the poorest, most marginalised
and most vulnerable people, and the government is supportive of
targets and indicators to incentivise and monitor this.
"The UK agrees on the need to set goals and
targets for 2030 but does not have a view on the need for a longer-term
vision.
"The Government welcomes the references made
to the UN Secretary General's High Level Panel on the post-2015
development agenda, which is co-Chaired by the UK Prime Minister,
in his personal capacity, with the Presidents of Liberia and Indonesia.
The Panel is actively engaged and consulting widely with relevant
constituencies at national, regional and global levels. It will
provide bold yet practical recommendations to the Secretary General
regarding the vision and shape of a post-2015 development agenda
that will help respond to the global challenges of the 21st century,
building on the MDGs and with a view to ending poverty."
6.21 The Ministers then outline what they describe
as a cross-departmental approach to the post-2015 development
agenda: the Cabinet Office leads in such coordination and involves
a wide range of relevant departments, such as FCO, DFID, DEFRA
and others, including in the Government's response to this Communication.
They also note that the Government is also in regular dialogue
with civil society organisations and businesses about this Communication.
6.22 Finally, they say that the Communication
"is likely to be responded to in some form" by both
the Foreign Affairs Council (Development Ministers) on 27 May
and Environment Council on 18 June.
Conclusion
6.23 The Ministers are somewhat vague about
the Commission's proposed way ahead. Our assumption is that Council
Conclusions will be adopted by one or both of the Councils to
which they refer, and that the Commission will then produce a
further Communication in the run-up to the UN General Assembly
Special Event. Given the significance of the topics under discussion,
we envisage that a debate might well be appropriate — either
before or after this event, depending on the timing of any further
Communication and the summer recess.
6.24 In the first instance, however, we would
like the Ministers to provide us with details of the Council's
response in due course, and at that time, information about the
next steps.
6.25 In the meantime, we shall retain the
document under scrutiny.
6.26 We are also drawing this chapter of our
Report to the attention of the International Development Committee.
18 The full text of the UN Millennium Development Goals
Declaration is at http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf. Back
19
See http://www.un.org/en/sustainablefuture/ for full information
on Rio+20. Back
20
Rio+20 did not elaborate specific goals but stated that the SDGs
should be limited in number, aspirational and easy to communicate.
The goals should address in a balanced way all three dimensions
of sustainable development and be coherent with and integrated
into the UN development agenda beyond 2015. A 30-member Open
Working Group (OWG) of the General Assembly is tasked with preparing
a proposal on the SDGs. See http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=1549
for full information. Back
21
The HLPF is co-chaired by the Prime Minister and his counterparts
from Indonesia and Liberia. Back
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