Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has named the entire 26-member panel who will advise him on the global development agenda after 2015, the target date for the millennium development goals (MDGs).
The high-level panel, which will hold its first meeting at the end of September during the UN general assembly, is expected to submit a report in the first half of next year.
In May, Ban named UK prime minister David Cameron, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, of Indonesia, as co-chairs of the panel. Representing the private sector will bet the chief executive of Unilever and the chief executive of the Association of Manufacturers, one of Kenya's leading business organisations. However, very regrettably, there is very little representation of civil society including no representation of the trade union movement.
The panel's task is to come up with recommendations for a post-2015 development agenda, building on the MDGs and with a view to ending poverty. The agenda will be built on economic growth, social equality and environmental sustainability. The panel is expected to work closely with an intergovernmental group on the sustainable development goals, as agreed at the Rio+20 conference. The reports of both groups will be submitted to member states for their deliberations.
The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food called for the post-2015 development agenda to be urgently refocused on equality, social protection and accountability, as the efforts of the UN Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals to draft post-2015 targets to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) entered a crucial phase.
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