Every child in the world has the right to a quality education and no child has a chance of realizing that right without an effective teacher. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) runs a Global Action Week every year, and since its inception in 2001, this campaign has brought together tens of millions of people and raised awareness on these issues. This year the campaign was co-organized by the National Coalition for Education (NCE), UNESCO India, the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) for India and Bhutan and CARE.
 
Several Members of Parliament presented strong messages in support of education-related initiatives such as these. UNESCO Director and Representative for India Shigeru Aoyagi also pledged the ongoing support of his office to this very effective campaign.
 
The event was attended by teachers and students from government schools, many of whom had created placards carrying messages in English and Hindi. UNIC Director, Mrs. Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman congratulated them on their efforts. “Education is the basic building block of every society”, she said. “It is a fundamental human right, not a privilege of the few”. She pointed out that education is the critical thread tying together all our hopes for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the six internationally agreed Education for All Goals (EFA). She reminded the audience that on 26 September 2012, during the UN General Assembly in New York, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a five-year initiative to bolster global action on education and it sought to generate a renewed push to reach the education goals set for 2015 – the Global Education First Initiative, GEFI. He urged governments to spare no effort to achieve the MDGs by 2015. “We have three years and three months. We must intensify our work. This is our collective responsibility”, he said.
 
UNIC National Information Officer Rajiv Chandran moderated a riveting media interaction, together with UNESCO National Programme Officer Huma Masood.

The UN in Azerbaijan, in close partnership with the Academy of Public Administration, brought together leading scholars, researchers, senior government officials and policy-makers on 23 April, to discuss economical, social and environmental issues. The forum took place within wider consultations in Azerbaijan that incorporate different stakeholders including civil society organizations, disadvantaged and minority groups, the private sector, academia, women’s organizations and youth, and other constituencies to identify priorities and to formulate a national vision for the Post-2015 Development Agenda that will succeed the MDG framework.
 
“In Azerbaijan, we are fortunate that the Government, in its ‘Vision 2020’, has been already been putting into perspective many relevant issues, enabling us to narrow the discussion on sustainable development goals (SDGs) and make it rather ‘locally colored and more focused,” said Mr. Antonius Broek, the UN Resident Coordinator while addressing the session.
 
Representing the UN Department of Public Information (UN DPI), Envera Selimovic said that the latest Baku forum, “enriched by the speeches and initiatives of renewed specialists, also provided a great platform to discuss challenges that ordinary people face on a daily basis that should be considered while going that extra mile towards ‘working together – finding solutions,’ for the post-2015 world.”
 
The UN DPI office gave strong media support to this session, similar to other forums held within the national consultations, and will be a close partner with the office of the Resident Coordinator until the results of consultations on Azerbaijan’s contribution to the SDGs, are presented to the Government of Azerbaijan at the end of May during the validation workshop.
 
“I am very happy to be part of this joint thinking for sustainable development and especially pleased by the deepening connection between environment and development in the ‘world we want,’” said Mr. Huseingulu Bagirov, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. “Let us hope that this dialogue will further stimulate creative thinking on how to put our nation on a more environmentally sustainable path and that our innovative ideas and inputs can be transformed into solutions that promote environmental sustainability and ‘green’ the Post-2015 future,” Bagirov added.

On Friday 19 April, UNIC Antananarivo with together with several UN agencies organized the first conference-debate for the “1000 Days of Action to achieve the MDGs” campaign which was led by UNDP Economic Counselor Simplice Zouhon Bi and INSTAT Director Niaina Randrianjanaka (National Institute of Statistics).

The conference discussed the progress achieved, the challenges that still need to be addressed and the views on how to achieve the MDGs in Madagascar. The statistics presented during the debate show that it would be difficult for Madagascar to achieve the eight MDGs before 2015. Indeed, poverty worsened between 2005 and 2010, mainly because of the 2009 political crisis.

Mr Simplice Zouhon Bi  presented two scenarios for the MDGs achievement: the “status quo” scenario which includes the role of the private sector, the institutional capacities of the public sector and the assistance of the Technical and Financial Partners; and the scenario of the “collective jump” which involves the sensitization of development actors, technical assistance and development aid and specific support by the UN System – framework of MDGs acceleration, resources mobilization and aid coordination.

The moderator invited the participants to be committed, engaged to take more actions for reducing poverty in Madagascar. All the stakeholders recognized that it is time to work together and to coordinate the actions in order to get more and better results. 

Proposals from the audience abounded: the RFA (African Women Network) suggested the reopening of CSB 2 (basic health centers); an activists highlighted the restoration of democracy; the CNFM (national Malagasy Women Council) proposed to involve the future candidates to the presidential elections in the 1000 Days campaign; the UN Clubs remeinded their involvement in development activities; the Girl scouts solicited to grant more value to youth actions.

To encourage an open dialogue with civil society, and to seek a true common vision on the future of our planet within the ongoing Sustainable Development and Post-2015 discussions, the UN Department of Public Information (UN DPI) in Baku and the office of the Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan brought together civil society activists and NGO representatives on 17 April, 2013 to jointly step through the looking glass.

 “We are really happy that UN DPI continuously seeks cooperation with civil society to give us a chance to not only cooperate around MDGs as we did in the past, but also to take part in the global consultative process towards a new Post 2015 agenda and look jointly beyond 2015,” said Esmira Asadullyeva from the Civic Response Network.

Facilitated by the Centre for Economic and Sustainable Development (CESD) Director, Dr. Vugar Bayramov, a lively discussion on the MDGs and global post-2015 development agenda touched upon a broad range of sustainable development issues and, inter alia, addressed the dimensions of environmental sustainability, shared growth, equity, and social inclusion.

The session also acknowledged that civil society has become a major global player in making progress towards the MDGs, particularly in alleviating poverty, and is expected to play a major role at this time when the UN looks for improvement on this agenda in the best interests of future generations.

The United Nations (UNO) Office in Azerbaijan and its partners will continue their co-operation with a wide range of partners to work towards the most successful global anti-poverty push in history, but at the same time we are happy that ordinary people can take an active role in the ongoing debates, said the UN DPI Representative Envera Selimovic.  She added, “We hope NGOs will help us in providing an arena where hard-to-reach, out of site groups such as persons with disabilities, the elderly, and voiceless young girls can enunciate their needs or concerns.”

For Ruhengiz Huseynova from the Women’s Solidarity Society this was the first ‘The World We Want’ consultation that she attended at the UN House in Azerbaijan. The consultation provided the opportunity to draw lessons from the MDGs, from both global and local perspectives, and discuss prevailing assumptions behind the development paradigms to ensure a strategic approach while identifying the sustainable development goals beyond 2015. “I’m truly excited to contribute to the Post-2015 national consultation process which is part of the ongoing UN global initiative,” Ruhengiz said.

UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Antonius Broek, concluded the discussion, thanking the participants and organizers and pointing out that the outcome of the national deliberations will feed into the global debates with the aim of creating a consolidated global position on the vision, purpose, principles and criteria of a post-2015 development framework.

The United Nations will continue cooperation with the Government, NGOs, private sector, and development partners to make progress towards achieving the MDGs by 2015, said Mr. Broek and added, “We will also explore opportunities to build effective partnerships with new powerful drivers and actors, including from civil society, to further advance sustainable development in Azerbaijan.”