Dear colleagues, civil society representatives, friends:
The international community has deemed 2015 as a time for global action. At national, regional and international levels, through dialogue, policy and wide spread advocacy, Governments, civil-society actors, United Nations entities, philanthropists and other stakeholders have been working to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other commitments to global development, while planning ahead for an ambitious and demanding post-2015 development agenda, for people and planet.
To plan our future steps in a way that surpass past barriers, we first need to look back. We have to methodically assess and acknowledge what we have achieved and what we haven’t, where we thrived and where we failed, as only then we will be able to appraise and avoid past mistakes while continuing to build on past successes.
It is with these things in mind that World We Want 2015 and the United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs seek to engage you in our online dialogue on the “Future of Social Development in the Post-2015 Era.”
Twenty years ago, Member States met in Copenhagen at the World Summit for Social Development to outline what remains one of the most comprehensive set of commitments to social development to date. How do these sets of commitments translate into the new post-2015 context? Is the understanding and approach to social development still relevant today? What has changed in our understanding of people-centred development and how do we account for those changes as we aim to move development forward in an inclusive and sustainable way post-2015? These are some of the areas that we are hoping to explore with you during the course of our conversation. Together, with you, we want to examine the evolution and contributions of social development to the process and practices of sustainable development over the past 20 years.
With this interactive online dialogue we hope to engage civil society and other stakeholders from various regions in a global dialogue on the evolving understanding and orientation of social development and social policy and to highlight the importance of creating more inclusive societies that support and encourage people to remain active and equal participants in all areas of society.
The outcome of this dialogue will help both World We Want 2015 and the UNDESA Division for Social Policy and Development, to better understand and incorporate into their policy advocacy work, civil society’s thoughts and perspectives on critical social development issues. The platform will be open from 18 May to 31 July 2015.
This initiative is part of a series of actions commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development and the adoption of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action[1], while building up to a people-centered post-2015 development agenda.
We hope you will join us by actively participating in this joint e-dialogue and encourage you to forward this invitation to your colleagues and networks.
*Please join the e-discussion by visiting: www.worldwewant2015.org/node/48731
[1] Adopted as the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen, 6-12 March 1995, the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action set an ambitious people-centered agenda aimed to promote social progress, justice and the betterment of the human condition, based on full participation by all.