"Listen To Children" – July 3 2015

"Listen To Children"

SOS Federation Vice-President Gitta Trauernicht to represent child focused agencies

The process to agree a new agenda to guide international development work for the next 15 years is now in its final stages, and SOS Children’s Villages continues to fight for children to be at the center.

The new Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs) will build on the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000.
 
A first draft of the SDG agenda has been released and is currently being negotiatied. The final hurdle for the SDGs will be the UN General Assembly in September of this year.
 
Parallel to the design of the agenda, the High Level Political Forum – the mechanism that will be in charge of reviewing and evalutaing the progress made by member states on the new goals – is meeting in New York to discuss how best to make this happen, focusing on how the proposed goals will be communicated and actually implemented.
 
SOS Children’s Villages will be contributing its knowledge and experience to the forum, representing some of the biggest international NGOs: ChildFund, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision. International Vice-President Gitta Trauernicht is scheduled to speak at the forum on Tuesday, 7 July.
 

 

Dr Trauernicht will call on world leaders to make an effort to reach out to children and young people – to communicate to them in language they understand and to keep listening to them throughout the implementation and monitoring process.
 
SOS Children’s Villages believes that the new SDGs must focus on supporting the world’s most vulnerable – especially children without parental care or those at risk of losing it. Many children were clearly not reached by the MDGs, and SOS Children’s Villages has been fighting for their needs to be addressed by the new agenda.