SDGs / Sustainable Development Goals

Editor’s Note:
Key milestones were reached in the SDG process last week. The first is the release of the “final draft” of the SDG agenda for adoption in September by the United Nations which specifies 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets and recent amendments to some targets. The other is the convening of the High-level Political Forum [HLPF] on Sustainable Development which will provide political oversight to the SDG process overall over its 15-year term. Running in parallel was a high-level ministerial meeting also considering SDG themes and issues.

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Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Global Action (Final draft of the outcome document for the UN Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda)
8 July 2015 :: 33 pages
Preamble
This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity that also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. All countries acting in collaborative partnership will implement the plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet for present and future generations. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps needed to shift the world on to a sustainable path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing demonstrate the scale and ambition of the new Agenda. They will stimulate action over the next fifteen years in the following areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet:

People
We want to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential. We want to end poverty in all its forms; end hunger and malnutrition; promote human dignity; combat inequalities in and between countries; achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; ensure quality education, water and sanitation and a healthy life for all; and secure the participation of all people and groups, including children, in the realization of the new Goals and targets.

Planet
We must respect and safeguard our common home. We want to protect the planet so that it can support the needs of present and future generations. We will conserve and sustainably use our oceans and seas; fight climate change; protect and restore ecosystems; combat desertification, land degradation and biodiversity loss; promote safe and inclusive cities and human settlements; and promote disaster risk reduction.

Prosperity
We want all human beings to enjoy the fruits of economic, social and technological progress and live productive and fulfilling lives. We want to ensure sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth; promote decent work and employment for all; foster shared prosperity and sustainable lifestyles worldwide; promote sustainable industrialization, agriculture and infrastructure; and ensure access to affordable modern energy services.

Peace
All people yearn to live in peaceful and harmonious societies, free from fear and violence. We want to foster peaceful, safe and inclusive societies; to strengthen governance and institutions at all levels; to ensure equal access to justice; and to protect the human rights of all men, women, boys and girls.

Partnership
We want to create an effective Global Partnership for Sustainable Development which will embrace all countries and stakeholders. The Global Partnership will mobilize the means required for implementation of the Agenda, acting in a spirit of strengthened global solidarity and supporting, in particular, the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable.

If we realize our ambitions in these areas and across the full extent of the new Agenda, the lives of millions of human beings will be profoundly altered and our world will be transformed for the better….

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At Closing of Economic and Social Council High-level Segment, Secretary-General Urges Stakeholders to End Poverty, Build Sustainable World for All
10 July 2015
ECOSOC/6714
The 2015 high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council concluded today with interactive national voluntary presentations and a thematic discussion on ways of strengthening and building institutions for policy integration in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, capping week-long deliberations that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said had helped to outline how the forum could organize its work, keep track of progress and bolster implementation.

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Concluding Session High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Adopts Declaration of Commitment to Ambitious People-centred Post-2015 Agenda
8 Jul 2015 – The High-level Political Forum for Sustainable Development closed its eight-day annual session today with the adoption of a declaration that committed ministers from around the world to establishing a “strong, universal, ambitious, inclusive and people-centred” post-2015 development agenda that completed the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals and responded to new challenges.

Through the text, Forum ministers welcomed what had been achieved through the Millennium Goals, which had set out a common vision and contributed to “significant and substantial advances” in several areas. They requested the President of the Economic and Social Council to issue summaries of discussions in the Forum and in the Council’s high-level segment, which runs until 10 July, to the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which convenes from 13 to 16 July in Addis Ababa.

“Our meeting was convened under a heightened mindfulness of the forthcoming post-2015 development agenda,” said Council Vice-President Mohamed Khaled Khiari (Tunisia) in closing remarks, the most ambitious one yet at the United Nations. Delegates had covered much ground, with substantive and practical deliberations on how to make the Forum fit for supporting implementation of the new agenda.

Throughout the session, he said, debates had shown that the Forum could be what Heads of State and Government attending the 2012 Rio+20 Conference had envisioned: one that provided leadership and political guidance, brought enhanced coherence to the institutional framework for sustainable development, served as the apex of follow-up and review of the new agenda, and offered a strengthened science-policy interface. “We will need to continue these discussions so we can hit the ground running,” he said, noting that several participants had suggested elaborating a road map to prepare the Forum for delivering on its role as soon as the agenda was adopted.

The declaration capped a day that featured the Forum’s adoption of its 2015 report, as well as two panel discussions. In the first — on “Reviewing and monitoring progress: What have we learned and how can it advance implementation?” — delegates weighed how national reviews to be conducted by the Forum starting in 2016 could best advance implementation of the sustainable development goals, with many advocating that existing review mechanisms be used to maximize impact. The second, on “Realizing the sustainable development goals: Matching ambitions with commensurate means of implementation — resources, technology and capacities”, focused on financing, trade, debt sustainability and capacity-building as ways to advance the new agenda…

[Editor’s Note: The text of declaration referenced above is not evident on website]