Political forum and development goals
By Ramu Damodaran
Until a few years ago, July was one of the quieter months at United Nations headquarters, very few meetings peopling the calendar of conferences. That changed in 2013 with the first annual meeting of the “High Level Political Forum,” or HLPF, whose 2022 session concludes this week. Perhaps not the most lyrical of names, but its very idea was something relatively unthinkable at the time its predecessor, the Commission on Sustainable Development, was established. HLPF was imagined as, and successfully proved to be, a forum where governments voluntarily presented a review of their national progress toward the sustainable development goals.
The idea of voluntary “soft” international accountability for national actions had earlier found reflection in human rights and disarmament treaties, committing to their provisions those nations who chose to join them and, by the power of their example and success, drawing others into their fold. At the turn of the century it extended to the Millennium Development Goals accepted by the entire U.N. membership as a compact between governments and their citizens as much as between governments themselves.
Revolutionary though the “MDGs” were, and they were revolutionary indeed, there remained areas which were firmly outside its ken and it was precisely the energy the goals animated that inspired new processes of thought and change that were to culminate in the definition of a new set of ambitions “for people, planet and prosperity” through sustainable development.
The HLPF became the convening body for nations to share their successes and concerns with each other. What made it a remarkable innovation was precisely the political nature of its being; as the co-chair of the negotiations that led to its in inception as part of the sustainable development agenda.
Ambassador Kim Sook of the Republic of Korea, stated unequivocally to governments in 2011, “We must be mindful of the task that was asked from us: to deliver a focused political document.” That said, he was quick also to note that the sustainable development goals would need to be a “people's agenda.”
Just two weeks before Kim spoke, the fourth high level forum on aid effectiveness concluded in Busan with a partnership agreement which, among other provisions, affirmed that “development depends on the participation of all actors, and recognizes the diversity and complementarity of their functions and that development co-operation must be transparent and accountable to all citizens.”
The agreement proved an effective pacesetter for the HLPF, moving politics out of the exclusive realm of elected officials to extend to those who elected them in the first place and , in that process , restoring the word “political” to its original Greek meaning relating to the concerns of citizens. At the global level, it manifested what President Suh Seoung-hwan of Yonsei University described, at the “Remember our Common Future” conference that his institution cosponsored earlier this year, as “inclusive international cooperation.”
It is that spirit of inclusion that has prompted many governments to broaden the scope of their voluntary national reviews to sub-national and local reviews as well and, in their conduct, involve an informed citizenry including civil society, academics and the private sector. Their collective wisdom has spurred imaginative initiatives; soon after the 2021 HLPF, Benin, which presented its national review for the third time, launched an SDG bond issue program designed to mobilize international investors to finance public spending in the country which had a high SDG impact, the first country in Africa (and, with Mexico, the only one globally) to do so.
Forty four countries presented national reviews at this year's HLPF, two of them ― Togo and Uruguay ― for the fourth time. Both countries are emblematic of development partnerships; Togo was home to the Lome Convention on cooperation between the then European Economic Community and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries while Uruguay hosted the multilateral trade negotiations, known by its name, which concluded agreements on nontariff barriers.
At the end of last year, the Korea Foundation (KF) Gallery in central Seoul hosted “Gauchos,” an exhibition titled for the legendary horsemen of Uruguay with prints by the country's leading photographer, Luis Fabini, in cooperation with the Uruguayan Embassy to Korea. Speaking to The Korea Times, Stefany Romero Veiga, charge d'affaires in the Embassy said: “Of course, one must not think that everyone in Uruguay's countryside is a gaucho or has a gaucho lifestyle, as it can't be further from the truth, in fact, gauchos are a minority. However, what I am trying to express here is that their lifestyle has permeated to society as a whole, and with its shades, many of its idiosyncrasies remain in force to this day. For instance, how we cook beef, how we enjoy lighting a fire and share a meal in the open air and the communion with horses."
In that vivid imagery lay also the truth and the strength of the HLPF, accommodating and nurturing styles of life without imposing them, allowing creative shades and idiosyncrasies to enrich the staid prose of customary political discourse, lighting fires to illuminate unintended darkness, savoring the breath of clean open air, respecting, and communing with, life and nature in all its forms.
Ramu Damodaran is a senior fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi, India. He served as the first director of the United Nations Academic Impact, an initiative linking universities around the world with the United Nations.