Review process of the post-2015 agenda on sustainable development

In September 2015, the heads of the state and government from the United Nations Member States will adopt the post-2015 agenda on Sustainable Development. The mandate of the new High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) includes a review process that will accompany and evaluate the implementation of the post-2015 agenda for sustainable development. To date, it remains unclear what exact form the HLPF review process will take; this is currently being decided on as part of the intergovernmental negotiations regarding the post-2015 agenda in New York.

Against this background, adelphi hosted a high-level consultation on the review process for the post-2015 agenda on 6 May 2015. The conference was supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and organised in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). A group of civil society, think tank and government representatives met in Berlin to discuss the potential form of the review process at the national, regional and international level. adelphi conceptualised the conference's content and administration and was responsible for the management and moderation of the conference.

The participants agreed that monitoring and reporting are essential elements of this political learning process – and therefore UN Member States should agree to a strong HLPF. The review process should be voluntary and supportive of Member States, and in particular it should be steered by them. Transparency and active participation is imperative in order to increase ownership and accountability of the relevant decision makers. The German delegation committed to feed these ideas into the further intergovernmental negotiations on the topic of follow-up and review of the post-2015 agenda in New York in May 2015.