Editorial: The Monrovia HLP Confab:

Monrovia, Liberia’s Capital is this week hosting the second meeting of the27-member United Nations High Level Panel or HLP announced in July 2012 by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advise on the global development framework beyond 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals or MDGs. The Monrovia HLP meeting, co-chaired by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, includes civil society, private sector and government leaders.

The Monrovia HLP Confab:  A Hope for An Impact-Making Development Framework Beyond 2015

The meeting, is focusing on the lessons learnt from the implementation of the current set of MDGs and further elaborating on the principles and main elements of a post-2015 agenda,  is expected to bring the panel one step closer to finalizing the report, to be submitted to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by the end of May this year. The MDGs, globally agreed in 2000, set out a series of time-bound targets to reduce extreme poverty.

Following a number of stock-taking throughout recent years, the United Nations is expected to further ensure an in-depth review of progress towards the MDGs in 2013, and begin looking towards a development framework for post-2015. The High Level Panel was set up by the UN Secretary General to advise on the nature of the post-2015 development framework – the successor to the MDGs – taking into consideration new global challenges and reflecting on the experience gained in implementing the MDGs so far.

As part of the Secretary-General’s post-2015 initiative mandated by the 2010 MDG Summit, at which time UN Member States called for open, inclusive consultations involving civil society, the private sector, academia and research institutions from all regions, in addition to the UN system, to advance the development framework beyond 2015.

As we welcome and wish our international guests well, we can only hope that this Monrovia HLP Conference will not only be a rewarding experience, but an impact-making post-2015 development framework  succeeding the MDGs , considering the new global challenges and the experience gained in the implementation of the MDGs so far.