International IDEA's Secretary-General highlights commitment to Agenda 2030 at UN in Geneva

Yves Leterme, International IDEA’s Secretary-General, travelled on 9 March 2017, to present the work of International IDEA in support of Agenda 2030 at the United Nations Office in Geneva. During his presentation, Leterme highlighted International IDEA’s contribution to the implementation and monitoring of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) through the strengthening of democratic institutions and accountability at both national and global levels.

The Secretary-General emphasized how accountability to citizens, and in particular accountability through democratic political processes, is a crucial enabler of the SDGs. Further, he also highlighted how democratic accountability can help make the SDG monitoring framework truly people-centered. This is particularly evident with, but not limited to, SDG 16. He also underlined the importance of SDG 16 and claimed that “no progress will be made on the goals if we do not address: rule of law, access to justice, accountable and transparent institutions, responsive, inclusive participatory and representative decision making and fundamental freedom”.

During the session, the Secretary-General informed about International IDEA's work for democratizing development and highlighted that International IDEA contributes to democratic implementation and monitoring of the SDGs by:

• Engaging in policy debates at global level, such as on why and how democratic accountability matters for successful implementation and monitoring of the SDGs;
• Production of policy-relevant knowledge, including region specific policy briefs on democracy and development;
• Contributing to the SDG16 data initiative, a partnership with an alliance of civil society actors and international organizations which showcases currently available data on all SDG16 targets from a variety of official and nongovernmental sources; 
• Conveningof dialogues on the SDGs with global, regional and national actors; and
• Anchoring International IDEA’s new strategy in Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goal framework.

During his visit to Geneva, Leterme also met with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Secretary General, Martin Chungong, exploring opportunities for deepening of the partnership and opportunities for collaboration with the aim of supporting and strengthening democracy worldwide.