The Global Conversation Begins: Emerging Views for a New Development Agenda

This United Nations (UN) document presents the first findings from the global conversation through which people have been invited to help Member States shape the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda after 2015. The report of initial findings identified three emerging priorities for the post-2015 agenda:

• "First, the progress on MDGs should be accelerated and adapted to contemporary challenges, such as growing inequalities within countries and the impact of globalization.
• Second, the consultations point to the need for a universal agenda to address challenges like environmental degradation, unemployment, and violence.
• Third, people want to participate, both in the agenda-setting as well as monitoring the progress in implementation of the Post-2015 framework."

"The United Nations engaged so far more than 200,000 people from 189 countries through a mix of digital media, mobile phone applications, conferences, and paper ballot surveys in this initiative officially launched last week in New York.

The United Nations teams in Member States are [engaging] groups usually absent from participation in global processes - for example, women, indigenous communities, the youth, [and]  people with disabilities are consulted on what they see as priorities for development of their communities.

In Peru and Ecuador, the UN Country Teams are placing a particular focus on consulting communities from the Amazon region. In Uganda, a mobile phone text message campaign has reached 17,000 people who have voiced their opinions on issues that they care about. In Zambia, the Post-2015 agenda discussion is supported by the First Lady, Christine Kaseba Sata and celebrities from sports and arts.

There are several tracks available for people to participate in framing the next development agenda: there are almost 100 national consultations in Member States; there are eleven thematic consultations on issues such as inequalities, food security, and access to water; people continue to contribute their ideas through the World We Want 2015 website; and people vote for six out of 16 priorities through the MY World survey."

The report states that the highest ranking priorities (to date) in the MY World survey are similar among high- and low-human development index (HDI) countries, while the lower rankings diverge. Highest rankings tend to be: good education, honest and responsive government, and better health care, while the gender equality between men and women choice received the greatest disparity between men's and women's survey entries. The document further details responses. Also available are a growing body of background materials that are being produced by the different levels of consultations. Open data for these interim and raw outputs are available in the World We Want searchable database and also through a trends page.