United Nations adopts ambitious sustainable development goals – Part one

by Maxwell Haywood

One of the most critical developments in our world, which Vincentians must familiarize themselves with urgently and intimately, is the recently adopted United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Scope of the SDGs?

In September 2015, during the Sustainable Development Summit in New York, 193 member states of the United Nations adopted “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” popularly known also as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).{{more}} It is a new United Nations global development agenda that should change the way countries, regions and the international community address the critical problems and opportunities facing the world.

This 2030 Agenda contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. The SDGs replace the eight goals called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which the United Nations adopted in 2000. In addition to the 17 goals and 169 targets, this agenda has a section on means of implementation and global partnership. The 17 goals address the following critical issues: poverty; hunger and food security; health, education, gender equality and women’s empowerment, water and sanitation, energy, economic growth; infrastructure, industrialization; inequality; cities; sustainable consumption and production; climate change; oceans; biodiversity, forests, desertification; peace and justice; and partnerships. Underlying all the SDGs is their interconnectedness. Each goal is connected to the other goals.

The SDGs did not just emerge in 2015. They have been shaped by various stakeholders over several years. This process was deep and wide. According to the 2030 Agenda, “”We the Peoples” are the celebrated opening words of the UN Charter. It is “We the Peoples” who are embarking today on the road to 2030. Our journey will involve Governments as well as Parliaments, the UN system and other international institutions, local authorities, indigenous peoples, civil society, business and the private sector, the scientific and academic community – and all people. Millions have already engaged with, and will own, this Agenda. It is an Agenda of the people, by the people, and for the people – and this, we believe, will ensure its success.”

Unlike the MDGs, the SDGs are supposed to reach into the furthest ends of countries: from the forests and rural areas to the coastlines and urban centres; and from the ghettos, to the upper-class neighbourhoods. The MDGs were aimed primarily at developing countries but the SDGs are directed at all countries including developed countries. The SDGs will go into effect from January 2016 to 2030.

Renewed development focus

The 2030 Agenda undoubtedly reaffirms that development is about people and their harmony with nature. The SDGs has stimulated a renewed process of setting global development standards. The process has the potential to build a more united world aimed at wiping poverty off the face of the earth.

Even though the 2030 Agenda is a negotiated document, it contains strong and assertive language which signals the development paradigm that will guide development over the next 15 years. In the preamble of the 2030 Agenda, governments state: “We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development….We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path.”

The SDGs represent a vision of what the world should look like: a vision in which poverty will not only be reduced but will be eradicated; a world in which social exclusion and inequality is no more; a world in which the natural environment is not being destroyed by human activities; a world in which governance processes are responsive to human and social needs, and promote the active participation of citizens in the public policy process; a world of peaceful relations, healthy living and affordable access to opportunities for lifelong learning. It is vision in which all workers get a living wage that is poverty-proof. In this vision, there is simply no room for structural adjustment programmes and the deadly austerity policies that are promoted and used by the current model of development.

There are several major global processes that will help to anchor the SDGs, including Sendai Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction that was convened in Japan, March 14-18, 2015; the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, held July 13-16, 2015; and the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be convened in Paris, November 30-December 11, 2015.

The target date for achieving this ambitious agenda is 2030, 15 years from now. This is not really a long time to accomplish such lofty and humane tasks. We are talking about 15 years to eradicate poverty, end inequality, end environmental degradation, and achieve prosperity for all. Currently, the world possesses the resources to banish poverty forever and to prevent environmental destruction.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon was optimistic and said that “We can be the first generation that ends global poverty, and the last generation to prevent the worst impacts of global warming before it is too late.”

In my next article, I will take a critical look at some of the challenges to implement the SDGs.