STI Forum- Co-Chairs Report to the HLPF-what happened to gender equality?
STI Forum Logo - two men pushing cogwheels - This last week I received the report of the Co-Chairs of the STI Forum on the SDGs 2017 and followed the presentation to the HLPF on the UN webcasting site. The STI Forum may not be the only culprits, this could be a general malaise across the whole UN & SDG system, but I was disappointed that the report and the presentation of the co-chairs reflected an inability to follow an innovative line of thinking – despite the rhetoric of transformation, the repeated references to the interrelatedness of the seventeen goals, the continued emphasis on the need to focus on people, the importance of ‘leaving no one behind’ and the concern that development activity does not destroy our planet. There was far too much rooted in the past, in business as usual, and far too little linked to achieving a different kind of future. As the Secretary General has observed, the 2030 Agenda is “a means to improve the lives of people, communities