Summary report global meeting post-2015_cambodia(1)

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UNDG Post-2015 Dialogues on “Partnerships with Civil Society”
Global Meeting Report
20-21 October 2014
Siem Reap, Cambodia
© Chan Tharin - Participants of the Global Meeting during the Opening Session
I. Introduction
On 20-21 October 2014, the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Government of the
Republic of Korea, in partnership with the co-leading United Nations entities - UN Population
Fund (UNFPA), the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme, UN Non-governmental Liaison Service
(UN-NGLS), UN Millennium Campaign (UNMC), UN Post-2015 Secretariat, and the Cambodia UN
Country Team (UNCT) - co-hosted a high-level global meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia to
conclude the UN Development Group (UNDG) post-2015 dialogues on “Partnerships with Civil
Society.”1 The objective of this meeting was to discuss strategies for advancing the key
recommendations that emerged from eight national consultations and an e-discussion
1 The UNDG dialogues on "Partnerships with Civil Society" were one of six components of the UNDG Phase II
Consultation, "Dialogues on the Implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda."

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conducted for the dialogues on post-2015 partnerships with civil society. The Member States
that conducted national dialogues were: Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan,
Lesotho, Tunisia, and St. Lucia. The global meeting was attended by 83 participants from these
nations and from the Republic of Korea - including from government, civil society, academia
and UN country offices - as well as from the co-hosting UN entities. Dialogue between
governments, civil society and the UN led to the refinement of recommendations on how civil
society can continue to inform the elaboration of the global post-2015 development agenda, be
engaged in its implementation, and enhance national policy formulation.
This summary report presents the key findings of the 1.5 day meeting. This report together with
a consultation summary report from August 2014 will inform the intergovernmental
negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda.
II. Meeting Proceedings
Monday, 20 October 2014
© Chan Tharin - Co-Chairs and Co-Leads during the Opening Session
The meeting was formally opened by:
1) H.E. Mr. Chhieng Yanara, Minister attached to the Prime Minister, Secretary General of
the Cambodian Rehabilitation and Development Board, and Deputy Secretary General of
the Council for Development of Cambodia
2) 2) H.E. Mr. Kim Sung-hwan, Chair, Institute for Global Social Responsibility, Former
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, and member of the High-level
Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
3) Ms. Kate Gilmore, Deputy Executive Director, UNFPA
4) Mr. Richard Dictus, Executive Coordinator, UNV

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Mr. Paul Ladd, Head of the UNDP Team on Post-2015 and the Post-2015 Secretariat, provided
an update on the status of the post-2015 deliberations. Mr. Juan Chebly, Project Coordinator of
the World We Want web platform (a UN Millennium Campaign Project) presented the results of
the global MYWorld survey. Ms. Susan Alzner, Officer-in-Charge of the New York office of UN-NGLS
shared findings and photographs from the national dialogues on “Partnerships with Civil
Society.”
These presentations were followed by four moderated multi-stakeholder panel discussions,
focused on the four key recommendations that emerged from the national dialogues and
online discussion:
1) Recognize and understand the role of civil society in policy development;
2) Create an enabling environment: Build a policy and regulatory framework that
maximizes civil society’s contribution towards development objectives;
3) Proactively align multi-stakeholder priorities, including those of government, civil
society, volunteers and private sector actors;
4) Set up and maintain accountability mechanisms that monitor partnerships and progress
in implementation efforts.
In addition, a representative from each of
the eight countries that had conducted
national consultations independently
presented country-specific findings and
experiences to the plenary.
© Chan Tharin - Ms. Diana Verdugo Villalba, CCONG, presenting the Colombian
Dialogues

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III. Key recommendations from the panel sessions
Session 1: Recognize and understand the role of civil society in policy development
Civil society plays important advocacy and mediation roles in policy development through:
identifying the most critical development priorities, suggesting practical solutions and policy
opportunities, and critiquing impractical or problematic policies. The expertise of local civil
society can be more grounded in national circumstances than the expertise of international
research institutions. Governments should:
1) Move from engagement to empowerment of CSOs - not just dialogue but actual policy
formulation - this requires shifting of power and breaking down institutional, social and
cultural barriers.
2) Ensure policy making processes are more open with timely information sharing with
CSOs and guarantee that processes are free of harassment/ intimidation of CSOs.
3) Leverage on the strengths of the CSOs - being the voice of the vulnerable, inclusion,
equality and equity
Session 2: Create an enabling environment: Build a policy and regulatory framework that
maximizes civil society’s contribution towards development objectives;
The role of States to foster an enabling environment for civil society partnership is critical for
the implementation of the post-2015 agenda. An enabling environment for civil society
partnership must be consistent with agreed international human rights principles, including
among others: freedom of association, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression,
the right to operate free from unwarranted State interference, the right to communicate and
cooperate, the right to seek and secure funding. Further, States must fulfil their duty to protect.
In this light, it is important to build local capacity in priority areas, and engage civil society’s
capacity to produce credible analytical, qualitative and quantitative research.
Key recommendations include:
1) Ensure participatory governance, accountability and transparency for all stages of
policy-making and implementation for the post-2015 development agenda. The
framework must be anchored in existing international human rights agreements and
instruments.
 Governments should establish institutional frameworks to ensure rule of law as well
as respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights, particularly to ensure
empowerment of people who have been marginalized.

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2) Build viable cooperation
 Strengthen existing dialogue mechanisms of civil society with governments, at both
national and sub-national levels. Enhance local leadership.
 Engage civil society’s capacity to produce credible analytical, qualitative and
quantitative research.
 Develop and improve coordination and knowledge-sharing mechanisms to avoid
duplication, build alliances and strengthen capacity.
 Ensure access to independent media and information; create public media platforms.
3) Invest in building the capacity of civil society organizations
 Expand civic education
 Provide funding for civil society participation in government meetings
 Support visa applications for international travel
 Expand access to technology, including the Internet
Session 3: Proactively align multi-stakeholder priorities, including those of government, civil
society, volunteers and private sector actors;
Multi-stakeholder partnerships should be based on the principles of inclusivity and
complementarity, acknowledging that no single actor can address sustainable development
challenges alone and each partner brings a particular added value into the dialogue as well as
specific capacities for implementation. In order to best align priorities and identify
opportunities for synergetic partnerships, neutral spaces for regular multi-stakeholder dialogue
need to be created with clear connections to decision making processes and implementation
measures. SDG implementation will require systematic community outreach and volunteer
engagement. The United Nations System can play a facilitating role as convener of dialogues.
Governments should ensure an enabling environment for multi-stakeholder dialogues at
national level and systematically associate volunteer involving organizations as they design
implementation strategies. Key recommendations include:
1) With regards to decision making processes across different thematic areas, ensure
integration of diverse perspectives and actors such as academia, the private sector
and volunteer groups around areas of mutual interest and ensure the inclusion of
those most marginalized.
2) Ensure connection between consultation and implementation mechanisms, with

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clear connections to decision making processes. Enlarge spaces for dialogue,
connected to opportunities for action.
3) Provide opportunities for capacity building of civil society actors who can in return
act as multipliers and capacity builders of local communities, in order to increase
accountability.
4) Include concrete opportunities for dialogue and voluntary action at local level with
regards to SDG implementation, ensuring outreach to marginalized people,
leveraging the expressed desire for engagement and tapping into the wealth of local
knowledge and experience.
5) Recognize and integrate volunteerism as a key factor for the localization of SDG
implementation as it provides new spaces of interaction between governments and
people for concrete, scalable actions to address development challenges across all
thematic areas.
Session 4: Set up and maintain accountability mechanisms that monitor partnerships and
progress in implementation efforts;
Citizen engagement in monitoring and accountability can strengthen policy-making and social
inclusion. Grassroots data collection on a mass scale can be accomplished through combining
online and offline efforts and requires systematic multi-stake partnerships, including volunteer
engagement. Accessibility of data is crucial to increase transparency and thus accountability.
Thereafter, data visualization facilitates communication and dissemination of data for evidence-based
advocacy. Furthermore, multi-stakeholder monitoring, which brings policy makers
together civil society and other actors, is a way to contribute to monitoring SDG progress.
Challenges
1) Local, Regional, and National data needs to be standardized and then centralized in
order to better inform global policy making. Stronger regional cooperation will be
essential to achieving this.
2) CSOs also need to be more coordinated and have a stronger and institutionalized role in
policy making.
3) Data has to be more open and transparent. Wide communication and dissemination of
data is necessary to ensure access to data and foster evidence-based advocacy.

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Proposed Solutions
1) Data collection needs to be systematic, timely and inclusive. Alternative sources of data
should be utilized, such as perception based data, or soft data.
2) Data collection by citizens should be seen as a way for knowledge sharing, empowering
ordinary people to engage in finding solutions for sustainable development;
3) When citizens are art of the data-collection process there is more transparency, and
transparency leads to better and more accountability.
4) Information, including hard data statistics and soft data, needs to be accessible to all in
order to allow participatory forms of monitoring, and evidence-based advocacy.
5) Multi-stakeholder mechanisms to monitor progress on SDG implementation are needed
such as JMIs and working groups
6) Open source platforms for social engagement in monitoring and accountability, such as
the Open Government Platform, are valuable and necessary for citizens to provide input
to policy makers in real-time.
7) Monitoring and accountability of the SDGs should draw best practices from the
Universal Periodic Review framework of OHCHR
8) The principles of social inclusion and participation should be seen as the bedrock of
creating a virtuous cycle of people-centered sustainable development.
© Chan Tharin - Ms. Ibtesam Atta-Allah, Alsho'aa Society, presenting key
recommendations for Jordan

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Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Day 2 provided a platform to discuss
meaningful and effective approaches to
continued civil society engagement in the
post-2015 development agenda.
Representatives from each country
delegation convened and discussed the
way forward in terms of continuing multi-stakeholder
interaction beyond the UNDG
dialogues. They addressed ways to
implement key recommendations at the
national level in order to build and
strengthen opportunities and spaces for
sustained civil society engagement as the
sustainable development agenda takes shape.
H.E. Mr. Kim Sung-hwan, co-chair of the meeting, provided a pre-wrap up, followed by a series
of presentations on the UN’s Way forward in the post-2015 deliberations.
Co-leading UN entities presented their respective approaches and initiatives for 2015 and
beyond. The presentations included opportunities for civil society engagement in the run-up
and during the inter-governmental negotiation phase in 20152; the necessity to develop
participatory accountability measures and new forms of data visualization during SDG
implementation such as the data mining tool on the worldwewant website3; as well as the ten-year
plan of action to integrate volunteering in peace and development in the first decade of
SDG implementation and beyond4.
Finally, closing remarks were delivered by Mr. Richard Dictus, Executive Coordinator of UNV,
Ms. Kate Gilmore, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, and H.E. Mr. Chhieng Yanara, co-chair
of the meeting.
All speeches can be accessed here: [Link]
2 http://sustainabledevelopment2015.org/index.php/timeline
3 http://www.worldwewant2015.org/trends
4 http://www.volunteeractioncounts.org/en/homepage/survey.html
© Chan Tharin - Ms. Selloane Jone, LCN, Mr. Mojela Mafike, LIRAC and Ms. Karla
Robin Hershey, UN Resident Coordinator (from left to right), discussing the way
forward for post-2015 multi-stakeholder dialogue in Lesotho

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IV. Outcomes
During the entire event, a number of key points emerged that are pertinent for meaningful
engagement of civil society in the continued elaboration and implementation of the post-2015
development agenda.
The immediate outcomes of the meeting include:
1. strengthened capacity for engagement of various stakeholders, including governments, civil
society and volunteer organizations in the post-2015 process;
2. greater awareness and understanding of the role of civil society in policy development,
including with regard to the different national contexts;
3. greater awareness of existing examples, practices and opportunities to support an enabling
environment for civil society to contribute substantially to shaping key sustainable
development policies;
4. enhanced partnerships among key stakeholders at national and international levels.
All presentations and discussions were webcast live; the recordings can be accessed here:
http://worldwewant2015.org/civilsociety2015.
References:
1) Agenda File: Agenda
2) Participants List File: Participants List report
3) Concept note File: Concept Note
4) Visual documentation: Photos

Summary report global meeting post-2015_cambodia(1)

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