Accountability must be a cornerstone of a post-2015 agenda
A post-2015 framework should include efforts to support and expand initiatives to overhaul aid systems and accepted practices in foreign investment and trade treaties so as to ensure they support developing countries. There are numerous ways in which a post-2015 framework could be more useful and provide greater social accountability than the current MDGs. These include establishing international mechanisms for sovereign debt resolution, improving best practices for donor lending and financing in developing countries, overhauling national financial regulations to support stability and development, preventing business enterprises from abusing human rights protections, redrafting trade and investment treaties, and making efforts to stem illicit capital flight and tax evasion.
From holding citizen debt audits in Tunisia to making oil revenues more transparent in Tanzania, from budget-tracking initiatives to reforming foreign aid to regulating the financial sector, advocates everywhere are increasingly stepping up to engage with their public institutions and official processes. As they are doing so, they are also increasingly drawing on human rights principles as the basis for demanding greater avenues for participation, transparency, inputs and feedback and increased social accountability. Those working to build a post-2015 global development framework must acknowledge such trends and incorporate this new political reality into any new agreements and goals.