.
The turn of the century marked a major milestone in development, where political leaders revised the terms of development cooperation with the adoption of the UN Millennium Declaration, from which a set of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) emerged. Over the last 15 years, the MDGs have proven to be the most successful anti-poverty campaign in history. Since 2000, extreme poverty has been halved, disparity between boys and girls in primary school enrollment eliminated, maternal and child health improved and significant progress in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria made, among other achievements.
The remarkable achievements by the MDGs demonstrate the powerful combination of political will and partnerships between governments, businesses, civil society international institutions, foundations, academia and vested stakeholders. The MDGs gave us the opportunity to use goal-based interventions to address imbalances and gaps. They helped to put people and their immediate needs at the center of national and global public policy. However, we now need go further – much further.
The world has changed radically since the MDGs were adopted and while existing challenges have remained, new complexities have emerged since the turn of the millennium. Pervasive poverty, gross inequalities within and between countries, environmental degradation, joblessness and deprivation, displacement and persecution, violence, migration and abuse, and the global economic, food, energy, and climate crises are all universal challenges we face today. These challenges are increasingly becoming more interconnected and demand collective responses to address them.
Guided by the outcomes of the 2010 MDG Summit and 2012 Rio + 20 Sustainable Development Conference, member states have been deliberating and the UN’s partners have engaged in an unprecedented effort of inclusive consultations at the country, regional and global level, all over the world to inform and help define the post-2015 development agenda. The inclusive process as championed by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has mobilized global leaders, the business, academic, scientific, parliamentarians and civil society communities through its vast networks. An example is the UN’s global MY World Campaign, where over 7 million votes were cast by people from all over the world on the priorities they wanted to see in their lives, with the majority of participants being young people under 30 years of age.
After more than three years of intergovernmental negotiations and unprecedented consultations, world leaders will adopt the Post-2015 sustainable development agenda, including the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in September 2015. The SDGs are a set of bold, ambitious and truly transformative goals that place people and planet at the center, addressing all forms of inequality, insecurity, and injustice, wherever they occur. The agenda integrates the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, recognizing the nexus to peace, and is underpinned by human rights. It also prioritizes the need to sustainably manage natural resources and promote sustainable production and consumption practices.
The sustainable development agenda is grounded in the Charter of the United Nations with “we the peoples” at its heart. Universality is at the core of sustainable development and translates into leaving no one behind, thus ensuring a life of dignity. Unlike the MDGs, the sustainable development agenda will require all countries to mobilize and contribute. All countries will need to change, in different ways. If we are to eradicate poverty, grow inclusive economies and preserve the environment, both developed and developing countries have to do their part at home. All stakeholders – public and private – have responsibilities and need to be accountable to this universal promise to humankind.
A universal agenda that aims at ending poverty everywhere and irreversibly will require massive transformations. Transformation means, first and foremost, that poverty is eradicated in all its forms, irreversibly and everywhere; human rights universally fulfilled and prosperity shared globally that is achieved within the world’s planetary boundaries.
Moreover, the sustainable development agenda will change the way we do business and require breaking down silos and delivering in solidarity: it is one set of goals and targets that collectively integrate the multifaceted dimensions of sustainability. All goals must be achieved through combined action in several sectors, with an adequate consideration of cross-sectorial issues. Interlinkages, synergies and integration are at the core of sustainable development. All goals integrate, in different ways and depths, the three dimensions. One can no longer be seen without the others. In the final analysis, these goals must be at the core of a country’s vision and plan for its people.
Therefore, business-as-usual will not lead the world to a sustainable development path and it will not allow us to respond properly to new and emerging challenges. As the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon put it, “There can be no Plan B because there is no planet B. Both science and economics tell us that we need to change course – and soon”. A significant paradigm shift must take place - in public and private sector, among governments, parliaments, NGOs, businesses, financial institutions, schools and universities, and media - to bring about a radical change of course and action. This means decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation and human rights abuse. In the absence of inclusive economic growth and environmental stewardship, poverty eradication and social justice will be fragile if not impossible.
As the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “We are the first generation that can end extreme poverty and the last to tackle the worst impacts of climate change.” At the end of this year, we will have seen the adoption of a set of sustainable development goals, a meaningful climate change agenda and a financing framework to provide the resources to achieve this people-centered and planet-sensitive common agenda to safeguard the environment and the future of our children and their children.
This ambitious agenda will be rhetoric if it does not foresee the necessary means to implement this vision into reality. It will only be an aspirational set of goals if it does not mobilize and unlock the means of implementation needed – including sufficient public as well as private finance. Just as important as the availability of the necessary finance, is tackling systemic issues that inhibit the change needed for the future we want. We have to build strong institutions to ensure policy and institutional coherence, build multi-stakeholder partnerships, address governance challenges and ensure data, monitoring and accountability. It will be crucial to forge principled multi-stakeholder partnerships, at all levels – global, regional, national and local – to carry out this sustainable development agenda. We also need a data revolution for sustainable development, ensuring availability and accessibility of key data everywhere and for everyone, supporting monitoring and accountability of the goals as well as accelerating sustainable innovations and technological advancements for people and planet.
The path to sustainable development is more than a destination, it is a journey and it will have challenges. However, imagine with me a world where all girls and boys in Nigeria have the right to go to school, access basic quality services, enjoy social protection, acquire the requisite resources, knowledge and skills to attain their aspirations and responsibly contribute to the growth of their community and country; a world where forced migration becomes planned, where the humanitarian context is not left behind. A world where all pregnant adolescents and women have access to safe conditions for child birth. A world without child labour and slavery. A world where people with disabilities, the aged and other vulnerable groups have equal opportunities and a life of dignity. This is the world we can achieve – only if we work together in genuine partnership. The time for global action with local results is now.
The article was originally published in the 2015 Global Action Report, an annual synthesis report produced by the Global Action Platform in collaboration with Diplomatic Courier. Republished with permission.
About the author: Amina J. Mohammed was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning in July 2012. Ms. Mohammed has more than 30 years’ experience as a development practitioner in the public and private sectors, as well as civil society. Prior to her UN role, she served as Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the MDGs, serving three Presidents over a period of six years. Ms. Mohammed has served on numerous international advisory panels and boards. She is a recipient of the Nigerian ‘National Honours Award of the Order of the Federal Republic’ and was inducted in the Nigerian Women’s Hall of Fame in 2007. Ms. Mohammed has four children.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
a global affairs media network
Sustainable Development: A Universal, Integrated, and Transformative Agenda
September 28, 2015
The turn of the century marked a major milestone in development, where political leaders revised the terms of development cooperation with the adoption of the UN Millennium Declaration, from which a set of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) emerged. Over the last 15 years, the MDGs have proven to be the most successful anti-poverty campaign in history. Since 2000, extreme poverty has been halved, disparity between boys and girls in primary school enrollment eliminated, maternal and child health improved and significant progress in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria made, among other achievements.
The remarkable achievements by the MDGs demonstrate the powerful combination of political will and partnerships between governments, businesses, civil society international institutions, foundations, academia and vested stakeholders. The MDGs gave us the opportunity to use goal-based interventions to address imbalances and gaps. They helped to put people and their immediate needs at the center of national and global public policy. However, we now need go further – much further.
The world has changed radically since the MDGs were adopted and while existing challenges have remained, new complexities have emerged since the turn of the millennium. Pervasive poverty, gross inequalities within and between countries, environmental degradation, joblessness and deprivation, displacement and persecution, violence, migration and abuse, and the global economic, food, energy, and climate crises are all universal challenges we face today. These challenges are increasingly becoming more interconnected and demand collective responses to address them.
Guided by the outcomes of the 2010 MDG Summit and 2012 Rio + 20 Sustainable Development Conference, member states have been deliberating and the UN’s partners have engaged in an unprecedented effort of inclusive consultations at the country, regional and global level, all over the world to inform and help define the post-2015 development agenda. The inclusive process as championed by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has mobilized global leaders, the business, academic, scientific, parliamentarians and civil society communities through its vast networks. An example is the UN’s global MY World Campaign, where over 7 million votes were cast by people from all over the world on the priorities they wanted to see in their lives, with the majority of participants being young people under 30 years of age.
After more than three years of intergovernmental negotiations and unprecedented consultations, world leaders will adopt the Post-2015 sustainable development agenda, including the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in September 2015. The SDGs are a set of bold, ambitious and truly transformative goals that place people and planet at the center, addressing all forms of inequality, insecurity, and injustice, wherever they occur. The agenda integrates the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, recognizing the nexus to peace, and is underpinned by human rights. It also prioritizes the need to sustainably manage natural resources and promote sustainable production and consumption practices.
The sustainable development agenda is grounded in the Charter of the United Nations with “we the peoples” at its heart. Universality is at the core of sustainable development and translates into leaving no one behind, thus ensuring a life of dignity. Unlike the MDGs, the sustainable development agenda will require all countries to mobilize and contribute. All countries will need to change, in different ways. If we are to eradicate poverty, grow inclusive economies and preserve the environment, both developed and developing countries have to do their part at home. All stakeholders – public and private – have responsibilities and need to be accountable to this universal promise to humankind.
A universal agenda that aims at ending poverty everywhere and irreversibly will require massive transformations. Transformation means, first and foremost, that poverty is eradicated in all its forms, irreversibly and everywhere; human rights universally fulfilled and prosperity shared globally that is achieved within the world’s planetary boundaries.
Moreover, the sustainable development agenda will change the way we do business and require breaking down silos and delivering in solidarity: it is one set of goals and targets that collectively integrate the multifaceted dimensions of sustainability. All goals must be achieved through combined action in several sectors, with an adequate consideration of cross-sectorial issues. Interlinkages, synergies and integration are at the core of sustainable development. All goals integrate, in different ways and depths, the three dimensions. One can no longer be seen without the others. In the final analysis, these goals must be at the core of a country’s vision and plan for its people.
Therefore, business-as-usual will not lead the world to a sustainable development path and it will not allow us to respond properly to new and emerging challenges. As the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon put it, “There can be no Plan B because there is no planet B. Both science and economics tell us that we need to change course – and soon”. A significant paradigm shift must take place - in public and private sector, among governments, parliaments, NGOs, businesses, financial institutions, schools and universities, and media - to bring about a radical change of course and action. This means decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation and human rights abuse. In the absence of inclusive economic growth and environmental stewardship, poverty eradication and social justice will be fragile if not impossible.
As the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “We are the first generation that can end extreme poverty and the last to tackle the worst impacts of climate change.” At the end of this year, we will have seen the adoption of a set of sustainable development goals, a meaningful climate change agenda and a financing framework to provide the resources to achieve this people-centered and planet-sensitive common agenda to safeguard the environment and the future of our children and their children.
This ambitious agenda will be rhetoric if it does not foresee the necessary means to implement this vision into reality. It will only be an aspirational set of goals if it does not mobilize and unlock the means of implementation needed – including sufficient public as well as private finance. Just as important as the availability of the necessary finance, is tackling systemic issues that inhibit the change needed for the future we want. We have to build strong institutions to ensure policy and institutional coherence, build multi-stakeholder partnerships, address governance challenges and ensure data, monitoring and accountability. It will be crucial to forge principled multi-stakeholder partnerships, at all levels – global, regional, national and local – to carry out this sustainable development agenda. We also need a data revolution for sustainable development, ensuring availability and accessibility of key data everywhere and for everyone, supporting monitoring and accountability of the goals as well as accelerating sustainable innovations and technological advancements for people and planet.
The path to sustainable development is more than a destination, it is a journey and it will have challenges. However, imagine with me a world where all girls and boys in Nigeria have the right to go to school, access basic quality services, enjoy social protection, acquire the requisite resources, knowledge and skills to attain their aspirations and responsibly contribute to the growth of their community and country; a world where forced migration becomes planned, where the humanitarian context is not left behind. A world where all pregnant adolescents and women have access to safe conditions for child birth. A world without child labour and slavery. A world where people with disabilities, the aged and other vulnerable groups have equal opportunities and a life of dignity. This is the world we can achieve – only if we work together in genuine partnership. The time for global action with local results is now.
The article was originally published in the 2015 Global Action Report, an annual synthesis report produced by the Global Action Platform in collaboration with Diplomatic Courier. Republished with permission.
About the author: Amina J. Mohammed was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning in July 2012. Ms. Mohammed has more than 30 years’ experience as a development practitioner in the public and private sectors, as well as civil society. Prior to her UN role, she served as Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the MDGs, serving three Presidents over a period of six years. Ms. Mohammed has served on numerous international advisory panels and boards. She is a recipient of the Nigerian ‘National Honours Award of the Order of the Federal Republic’ and was inducted in the Nigerian Women’s Hall of Fame in 2007. Ms. Mohammed has four children.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
