CB BureauA UN working group has devised a final draft of ‘sustainable
development goals’ (SDGs) to succeed the millennium development goals. The draft
includes 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030. The recommendations
will be shared next month with the UN general assembly (UNGA), which is expected
to adopt the new set of goals in September 2015.
Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved
nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
at all ages.
Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and
promote life-long learning opportunities for all.
Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and
girls.
Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of
water and sanitation for all.
Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable,
and modern energy for all.
Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable
economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive
and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries.
Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe,
resilient and sustainable.
Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production
patterns.
Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its
impacts.
Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and
marine resources for sustainable development.
Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of
terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and
halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for
sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective,
accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and
revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
The Sustainable Development Agenda, likely to extend until
2030, will address persistent issues and new challenges facing people and the
planet. The MDGs faced criticism for not sufficiently covering the
environmental dimension of sustainable development, and for not addressing
interlinkages between its three dimensions – the environmental, social and
economic. Instead of addressing the dimensions of sustainable development
separately, the SDGs are expected to adopt an integrated approach. The concept
of Sustainable Development Goals was born at the United Nations Conference on
Sustainable Development, Rio+20, in 2012. The task of preparing a proposal on
the SDGs and developing a set of measurable targets and indicators was assigned
to the intergovernmental Open Working Group (OWG) of the UN General Assembly.
Clearly, innovation in the fields of renewable energy, food
production, water conservation, education and health will be crucial to meet
the SDGs. The challenges will be to reach to the geographically dispersed
populations – the bottom-of-the-pyramid segments in particular – with irregular
income streams; and draw the private sector to partner with governments and
community groups to invest in sustainable growth.