EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL
Interview with Mr. Gerald Pachoud,
Principal Officer in the Strategic Planning Unit
GVI:Do you think mechanisms for multi-stakeholder engagement in forging the Post-2015 agenda will usher in new ongoing modes of inclusive governance?
Mr. Pachoud: Of course, they have been extremely useful and it is probably fair to say they have fulfilled their mission. More broadly speaking, multistakehodlers engagement through specific initiatives is a very interesting and probably a very central element to deliver on the Post2015 agenda; this is why the Secretary General promoted the creation of a UN partnership facility two years ago. We need to develop capacity to mobilize these energies. The idea is to have better coordinated UN efforts, among the UN system, to further the understanding of good lessons learned and to benefit from an overview of what is going on in the space of partnerships involving the UN . We have partners, we have mobilization, but we do not always have the most efficient set-up and we do not act on it in a systematic manner. Every time a partner joins we usually have to start from scratch, so the idea is to strengthen and make more efficient our partnership models to, in turn, deliver on our mandates more efficiently.
GVI: If we compared what happened in 2000 with the adoption of the MDGs, the UN has achieved much more. This means the inclusion of a wide range of partners and actors. Do you believe the Post-2015 process has been a more open one, a more democratic one? Will the focus on global partnership mean more equitable and meaningful collaboration on development goals among developed and developing countries?
Mr. Pachoud: This has definitely been a more inclusive process. This will be a political decision taken by Member States, but that decision has been informed by an unprecedented level of consultation. The Climate Summit has shown that these forces are being mobilized and bring value and new energy. We are expecting that the specific goals that come up, the quality of the decisions as well as the information fully reflects that inclusiveness. They must fulfill the energy that actors have put into it.
GVI: How does the UN plan to use all of those consultation mechanisms (such as MY WORLD, etc.) that shaped the Post-2015 Development Agenda in the follow-up mechanisms or implementation of the SDGs?
Mr. Pachoud: Communication and engagement is as good as it has ever been before and we should use it to engage and include as many voices as possible. It is easier, cheaper, broader, so we have to, and the UN has to, capitalize on those new technologies.