On 6 May 2015, civil society, development practitioners as well as government and think-tank representatives from around the globe met in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the review of the Post-2015 Agenda and goals for sustainable development. The high-level consultation, attended by 55 German and international experts, was organised by Adelphi on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The event aimed to provide a platform for national and international experts to exchange lessons learned from existing processes and their various perspectives on possible elements of a mutual state-led review process against the background of recent and forthcoming rounds of intergovernmental negotiations on the Post-2015 Agenda.

SEED was invited to share insights in a session centred around partnerships for sustainable development and voluntary commitments. Based on its 10 years’ experience of working with partnerships both at the global and local level, SEED stressed that the review mechanisms should be constructed:

1. to encourage maximum participation, ambitious target-setting, and voluntary commitments,

2. to include partnerships and NGOs, and

3. to reach down to the grassroots, including enterprises, in order to capture as much information as possible about implementation of the SDGs.

According to the Chair’s Conclusions, the participants agreed that monitoring and reporting are crucial parts of this policy learning process and that a multi-level review process needs to be designed accordingly. Such a review process should be voluntary and supportive, but most importantly led by national states; it requires transparency and participation in order to increase ownership and accountability. The review mechanism should also be a platform for partnership and stakeholder engagement.

Please find the Chair’s Conclusions for download here.