Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
What are they?
• New set of universal goals to end global poverty that were adopted by the
United Nations in September 2015 and will run until 2030.
• The SDGs are important because they will determine the future direction of
development work over the next 15 years.
• The SDGs outline a blueprint for development priorities for the next 15
years. They include 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of
sustainable development issues, from ending poverty and hunger to
improving health and education, reducing inequality, and combating
climate change.
• The United Nations says the SDGs go much further than the previous goals,
because they address the root causes of poverty and pledge to leave no
one behind, including vulnerable groups. The SDGs are intended to be
universal, applying to all countries rather than just the developing world.
Goal 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable
economic growth, employment and decent
work for all
• 8.1 Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent
gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries
• 8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship,
creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises,
including through access to financial services
• 8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training
• 8.7 Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and
secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers,
and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
• 8.a Increase Aid for Trade support for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, including through the
Enhanced Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries
• 8.b By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of
the International Labour Organization
How were they developed?
• The UN has conducted the largest consultation programme in its history to gauge opinion on what
the SDGs should include.
• Establishing post-2015 goals was an outcome of the Rio+20 summit in 2012, which mandated the
creation of an open working group to come up with a draft agenda.
• The open working group, with representatives from 70 countries, had its first meeting in March
2013 and published its final draft, with its 17 suggestions, in July 2014. The draft was presented to
the UN general assembly in September last year.
• Alongside the open working group discussions, the UN conducted a series of “global
conversations”. These included 11 thematic and 83 national consultations, and door-to-door
surveys.
• The UN ran “My World,” a global survey that allowed people online (and with some other
outreach to cell and paper surveys) to choose 6 of 16 possible issues as “most important for you
and your family.” The process was obviously not representative and was potentially biased in a
number of ways, but, unlike the MDGs, it allowed over 5.7 million people from low- and mediumHDI (human development indicator) countries to participate. Moreover, as part of a UN process,
one would think the biases would be pro-MDG.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jan/19/sustainable-development-goals-united-nations,
http://www.cgdev.org/blog/new-global-goals-spell-end-kinky-development
What do they mean to the international
community ?
• The SDG framework also presents a new paradigm, one of
development being comprehensive, not only about the 'South',
certainly not achieved solely by charity, and most definitely requiring
the best brains, resources, business models and innovations from all
sectors.
• Sustainable and equitable (NGOs) – community level, inclusivity of
growth, real change at ground level
• Leaving no one behind is a key theme of these SDGs
• The role of business and economic growth is much more central to
these goals
Who/what are the SDGs supposed to influence?
There are at least four answers to that question:
• Developing country budgets and policies
• Wider social norms about rights and the duties of governments and
others
• Aid volumes and priorities (i.e. a re-run of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), which were mainly effective as an aid
lobbying tool)
• Developed country budgets and policies
Source: https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/how-will-the-sdgs-differ-from-the-mdgs/
Business and SDGs
Business see their greatest impact and opportunity in areas that will
help drive their own business growth. When business profits from
solving social problems, when it makes profit while benefitting society
and business performance simultaneously, it creates solutions that are
scalable. Should we question the motives of business if their activity
and ingenuity works to benefit of society? Enlightened self-interest
focused on the SDGs could generate tangible results.
Source: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/sustainability/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-research-results.html
Source: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/sustainability/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-research-results.html
In summary
PROS
• Inclusive: apply to all countries
• Holistic: root causes of development and broad definition of sustainability
• Representative: includes business, citizens, member states and other actors in the process
• Better data
• More collaboration
CONS
• But not enough collaboration: geopolitics of UN member states and NYC centric consultation
• Too unwieldy and cumbersome: laundry list
• Not focused – MDGs more realistic
• Big questions about how to finance these?
• Now what?