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  2. Blog on SDG16

Blog on SDG16

Can crisis governance drive out the capacity for complexity governance?

The contribution of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) to the 2023 HLPF contains eight topical recommendations. This blog is inspired by the first recommendation, which is about the very dynamic context in which governments currently have to operate and find effective responses to a diversity of challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments in a crisis management mode, and many of them performed relatively well in this respect – but others did not. Meanwhile… Read More

Another take! Times of tectonic shifts and global changes: The public service and the Global South

This week, from 27 to 31 March 2023, the Committee of Experts of Public Administration (CEPA), a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, meets.  It has been confronted by the realisation that both the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine may have transformed the world as we known it since roughly the start of the century.  Both exposed a gulf between the narratives, perceptions and needs, with lived realities and facts which, though dimly aware, we can… Read More

Connecting the “Silos” of Decision-making

  Agenda 2030In 2015, all of the UN's 193 member countries, after many rounds of negotiations, agreed on a Master plan for the survival of humanity and our planet, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. It is an extremely ambitious plan with 17 sustainability goals and 169 targets. What this Agenda 2030 provides is a unique, global, national, and local investment plan in three central dimensions of survival – the social, the environmental, and the… Read More

How to incorporate SDGs into national budgeting systems

The report “Emerging issues in public financial management and budgeting for the SDGs” states that “the budgeting for the SDGs as a practice is still in its infancy. Several countries have announced, through voluntary national reviews, the intention to reflect the Goals in budgetary processes but few have specified why it would be relevant to do so or how the practice could be made operational”. For most countries the simplest and potentially fast solution is to re-organise the national… Read More

Guatemala’s supreme audit institution’s work to promote education on good governance in schools…

Supreme audit institutions play a key role in promoting accountability, integrity, transparency and in ensuring the quality of public spending for the benefit of citizens. In recent years, the Office of the  Comptroller General of Accounts of the Republic of Guatemala has developed several programs that aim to promote these values in the national education system. The “Sowing seeds of transparency” program In accordance with the Inter-institutional Cooperation Agreement between the… Read More

Gambling away our future

In our time of multiple, complex and interacting crises – think for a moment about the following three opening sentences: “If all goes well, the history of mankind has only just begun. Mankind is about two hundred thousand years old. But the earth will remain habitable for hundreds of millions of years to come – enough to end disease, poverty, and injustice forever, enough to create heights of flowering that are unthinkable today.”In our time of multiple, complex and interacting crises – think… Read More

Go far, go together

An oft-quoted African proverb says that if you want to go fast, go alone; and If you want to go far, go together. This message of working together in partnership is echoed in the theme of this year’s United Nations Public Service Day, celebrated every year on 23 June, as decided by the UN General Assembly. [1] Taking its lead from the 2022 theme of the United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF), which will review progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, the 2022 UN… Read More
There is no Planet B

A Hippocratic oath for the coming generations

Climate change is the biggest health challenge in the world today. It poses a steadily increasing direct and indirect threat to future generations. Humans are facing unprecedented challenges, first and foremost related to climate change, nature loss and embedded in this also issues related to health and food security.  The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change claims that ‘climate change is the greatest global health threat facing the world in the 21st century, but it is also the… Read More

Access, authentication and preservation: three keys to boosting the integrity and inclusivity of…

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes in Goal 16 that all should have access to information as a part of ensuring access to justice for all and ensuring accountable and inclusive institutions. Recognizing this shared goal, in 2015, the Law Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) created the IFLA Statement on Government Provision of Public Legal Information in the Digital Age to set a clear standard that… Read More

Effective, accountable and inclusive institutions are critical for the recovery from COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to Africa’s sustainable development prospects. The pandemic has reversed progress on the overarching goal of eradicating poverty in all its forms everywhere. The pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity, inequality, unemployment and informality. For the first time in a decade, global poverty has increased, with the United Nations estimating that the pandemic has pushed more than 114 million people into extreme poverty. African countries face fragile… Read More

Making national institutional arrangements for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals more…

Strong and effective institutions are paramount to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is well recognized in the Agenda itself. However, five years after the start of the implementation of the Agenda, governance issues remain at the forefront. The 2021 edition of the World Public Sector Report, published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), looks in detail at changes in… Read More
Doctor holding a cellphone

International Practice on Digital Health Certificates

Overview Globally, we see ongoing discussions on how vaccine-certificates could be part of the effort to reopen the economy and an increasing need collaborate and support cross border verifications of vaccine certificates. This led to the idea to leverage on the Digital Government Exchange (DGX), a platform that the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office and the Government Technology Agency Singapore formed in 2016. DGX facilitates dialogue amongst GCIOs and public sector leaders from… Read More