Addressing an Understated Issue in the SDG Discourse
Contribution of the Southern Non-State Actors

Thursday 11 July 2019, 17.30-19.30
Concern Worldwide, 16th floor, 355 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Introduction

The journey towards realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is at its fourth year. It has been observed that several critical issues have remained understated in the traditional SDG discourse. While the non-state actors in the South have significant roles in delivering the SDGs, their contributions are not being adequately recognized; and, are also not being documented in the voluntary national reviews (VNR) prepared by the governments of the member states. The non-state actors, in this case, includes the non-government organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs), social movements and the private sector.

In this backdrop, the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh undertook a pioneering initiative to capture the contribution of non-state actors in realizing the global development agenda in the country context. The reviews of the progress of the pre-identified six SDGs for the HLPF 2019 were prepared for Bangladesh and validated through a widely attended “Citizen’s Conclave”.

In view of the above and, in order to discuss the challenges involved in assessing the contributions of the non-state actors, a session titled “Addressing an Understated Issue in the SDG Discourse: Contribution of the Southern Non-State Actors” will be organized jointly by Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Concern Worldwide, Oxfam International and The Hunger Project.

This event will take place in New York on 11 July 2019 at 17.30-19.30 hours, in the sidelines of the HLPF 2019.

Objectives

The major objective of the session is to improve our understanding regarding the significant role played by the non-state actors, CSOs in particular, in realization of the SDGs in the Global South. The specific objectives of the session are the following:

1. Tracking the changes in CSO priorities following launch of the SDGs;
2. Identifying the CSO approaches and interventions in the area of “leave no one behind”; and,
3. Developing a framework for assessing contributions of the CSOs in delivering the SDGs.

Session format

The session will be participated by experts and professionals from relevant stakeholder groups engaged in implementing the SDGs. Drawing on their experiences, the distinguished participants will share their views and observations on the SDGs implementation.

The stakeholder groups would include – a) representatives from the NGOs/CSOs; b) engaged researchers and academics in the field of development; b) professionals from international development partners supporting NGOs/CSOs; c) impact evaluation experts in development sector; d) concerned government officials; e) experts exploring private sector’s engagement in SDG delivery; f) media professionals interested in SDG delivery techniques.

The session will be kicked off with welcome remarks from the host organization. A distinguished expert in the field will moderate the session. A resource paper (ppt), prepared by the Citizen’s Platform, will be shared at the beginning of the session. Following this curtain raising presentation, three panelists from different parts of the world will share their comments followed by interventions from the floor. The moderator will close the session with a summary of the discussion. The duration of the session will be two/three hours.

The tentative program may be outlined as below-

Contact

For any queries and advice, kindly communicate –

Email: towfiq@cpd.org.bd, communication@cpd.org.bd