The United Nations and partners have launched an interesting exercise to poll the world’s citizens on their top priorities, policies and views as world leaders shape a global development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals, which expire in 2015.
They are calling this project MY World, and it includes an interactive web page, SMS, platform, telephone and offline survey to target as many people as possible around the world to weigh in on their top priorities. (It’s in all six official UN languages, naturally.)
Users must choose six out of the 16 options.
Better job opportunities
Support for people who can´t work
A good education
Better healthcare
Affordable and nutritious food
Phone and internet access
Better transport and roads
Access to clean water and sanitation
Reliable energy at home
Action taken on climate change
Protecting forests, rivers and oceans
Equality between men and women
Protection against crime and violence
Political freedom
An honest and responsive government
Freedom from discrimination and persecution
After some basic biographical information is submitted (age, gender, and nationality) responses are displayed on this map. Darker colors represent a greater number of respondents.
My World only launched a few weeks ago, so the results are still relatively young. Here’s what I selected:
The first tranche of results will be shared this spring with the Secretary General’s High Level Panel on the Post 2015 Development Agenda before their meetings in Bali, Monrovia and New York. This is a group led by the Presidents of Liberia, Indonesia and the UK to help design and develop a global development agenda once the MDGs expire in 2015.
The panel is expected to make its recommendations to the Secretary General in the late spring, then Ban Ki Moon is expected to use those recommendations in a report to the entire General Assembly at the UN summit in September. My World is a way to make sure that voices of ordinary people are the world are included in this process.
It’s a rather remarkable example of consensus building from the bottom up. I encourage folks around the world to take five minutes and select the issues you consider priorities.