Food Security and Nutrition, hosted by the Governments of Spain and Colombia, was held in Madrid on 4 April. It convened around 40 high level personalities representing governments, UN agencies, research institutions, non-governmental organizations, including consumers and development NGOs, producers organizations, indigenous peoples’ networks, the private sector, and financial Institutions. The high-level dialogue was facilitated by the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral for Food Security and Nutrition on the basis of the elements included in the brief for the Madrid consultation. The high-level consultation discussed a vision and building blocks for Food Security and Nutrition in the Post 2015 Agenda. The results of the high-level dialogue are included in the Chairs and co-leads report (referred to as “the Madrid outcome document”) and were shared with the UN Secretary-General, who delivered a speech at the end of the Madrid meeting. The participants at the Madrid high-level consultation further disseminated the document to their constituencies, and shared it with partners. The document has been referenced by different stakeholders in several meetings, and its outcomes were partially included in the report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Experts. Population Dynamics
The global thematic consultation on Population Dynamics sought to provide an authoritative position on how population dynamics affect development challenges, and a broad-based consensus on how population dynamics
are best addressed in the post-2015 development agenda. The consultation, which benefited from generous financial support from the Government of Switzerland and the Hewlett Foundation, was led jointly by the governments of Switzerland and Bangladesh. On behalf of the international agencies, the consultation was led by UNFPA, UN DESA, UN Habitat and IOM in close collaboration with UNDP, UNAIDS, UN-Women, OHCHR, ILO, FAO and WFP. The consultation involved an e-consultation component – including focused discussions on high fertility and population growth, low fertility and population ageing, internal and international migration, and urbanization – as well as a series of face-to-face consultations with leading academics (19–20 November 2012, New York), the private sector (23 January 2013, New York) and civil society (18–19 February 2013, Geneva). Discussions with Member States were held in New York (22 January 2013) and Geneva (22 February 2013). A global leadership meeting with Member States (11–12 March 2013, Dhaka) concluded this series of consultations. Water
The thematic consultation on Water, launched in November 2012, was supported by the governments of Jordan, Liberia, Mozambique, The Netherlands and Switzerland, and co-facilitated by UNICEF, UN-DESA and UN Water. The general global consultation reached out to people broadly interested in water and encouraged them to share their views. More specifically, three sub-consultations encouraged weekly in-depth discussions around the topical streams of: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; Water Resources Management; and Wastewater
Management and Water Quality. The consultation consisted of several complementary approaches. It expanded outward through live events, social media (with dedicated Twitter and Facebook accounts) and an interactive website to engage and amplify thousands of diverse voices. The World We Want 2015 online consultation space registered 57 735 unique users who generated 201 207 total page views, 1 306 website comments, and 2 109 poll responses. New perspectives from people in 185 Member States responded to weekly topics of widespread concern. High-level meetings absorbed views of government, business and civil society from The Hague to Monrovia, Liberia; Geneva, Switzerland; Tunis, Tunisia; Mumbai, India; and back. Face-to-face dialogues were bolstered and informed through web-based forums, interactive page views, comments, poll responses, live video feeds, e-discussions, surveys, reports and much more. Combined, the consultation proved to be an expansive international outreach process. Over the course of five months of active participation of stakeholders, it emerged that linkages exist between several of the consultation themes; but water underpins each and every one. The Water thematic consultation reached a peak on 21-22 March 2013 at a high-level meeting that was held in The Hague in conjunction with the celebrations of World Water Day. There, the High-Level Forum adopted a statement which set a new course for concerted action and global direction, capturing water’s importance to the post-2015 development framework. The synthesis report of the consultation’s findings was available for public comment before finalization.
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