On the 13th October, the SDG Watch coalition held its official launch in Brussels, with a packed audience of over 150 participants. The Alliance is a cross-sectoral NGO alliance involving social, green and development NGOs committed to mobilizing to ensure delivery on the Sustainable Development Goals and agenda.
EAPN is an active member, working specifically on the advocacy and supporting coordination of the monitoring/accountability work streams.
The key note speaker was Commissioner Timmermans, the Commission’s Vice President responsible for the implementation at EU level. He called the SDG’s an “agenda for change’ to which he was ‘passionately committed”. But underlined that we would need to work very effectively together to make it a reality, and to overcome the opposition, including within the Commission. He highlighted that the risk of holistic strategies was that they could be about ‘everything and about nothing’ but that they also offered an enormous opportunity to “break down silos”, and progress on real policy coherence, offering a vital, inspirational strategy for change. He promised to create a dynamic relationship with SDG Watch and to set up an interactive platform to discuss what works/what can be improved with stakeholders, including SDG Watch in the discussion on indicators and on the governance mechanisms. He underlined the central importance of the link to the European Pillar of Social Rights – ‘If we don’t fix the social questions in Europe, we won’t get support for the EU, never mind the SDGs”.
The SDG Watch Alliance is open to membership from any EU wide organization committed to its aims and values.
For more information contact Sian Jones: sian.jones@eapn.eu
@SDGwatcheurope