2014 has come to an end and we are glad to look back at the work we have been doing and share some results.
The UN team in Belarus had a chance to seize the opportunity and combine two important processes into one: the MY World 2015 global survey and associated public consultations, which became significant for the preparation of the country strategic document: National Strategy for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development of Belarus till 2030.
The Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus requested assistance with the development of the National Strategy and with conducting public consultations as a part of the process. After a number of meetings, we came to the conclusion that we actually already have a great means for asking people what is important for them – the MY World 2015 global survey. Since the National Strategy document consists of certain development priorities, which coincide a lot with the priorities in the survey, it was a great solution!
“An agenda that is built on the priorities of people will be a better agenda – it will respond more to their needs, to their aspirations, and how they want to live their lives.”
– Paul Ladd, People Driven Accountability Workshop, DPI-NGO Conference
New York City – August 28, 2014
The United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) and the World We Want 2015 Policy Strategy Group presented the People’s Voices Workshop on August 28, 2014 during the 65th Annual DPI-NGO Conference. The workshop, titled ‘People Driven Accountability’ presented examples of the UN Millennium Campaign’s strategy for ensuring the millions of voices, hopes and dreams of people from around the world are heard by world leaders as they negotiate the post-2015 development agenda.
Ms. Rosa Lizarde, Co-chair of the World We Want 2015 Policy Strategy Group, moderated the workshop, and the keynote address was given by Mr. Nicholas Pron, Special Advisor to the President of the United Nations General Assembly. Panelists included Paul Ladd, UNDP Post-2015 Team Lead, Ghazala Mehmood, Policy Strategy Group Member representing Barakat Incorporation, Niels Caszo, President of AIESEC US representing youth-led organizations, and Mohan Sunkara, the CEO of Azri Data Engineering. Ravi Karkara, UNMC Post-2015 Strategic Partnerships Advisor and Co-chair of the World We Want 2015 Policy Strategy Group offered the closing remark for the workshop.
The workshop focused on how MY World 2015 and the World We Want 2015 are tools which allow people to have a say in UN Processes. The MY World Survey has so far accumulated the voices of over 4 million people from 194 countries. The World We Want 2015 platform steers discussions on the post-2015 agenda and enhances civil society’s participation to ensure that people’s voices are taken into consideration when drafting the new development agenda. The results of the MY World Survey are hosted in the World We Want 2015 Trends page and they complement the global consultative exercises by UNDG and by civil society organizations worldwide in light of building an inclusive future development agenda after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) end in 2015. All of this open data is available for anyone to access, so “everyone can use this data to make a strong case and point and to hold governments to account,” as Ravi Karkara pointed out during the workshop.
