What are the Sustainable  Development Goals?

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(Source of Data : United Nations Website) Published 2 September 2019

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015 as a new set of international development goals. Governments have pledged to meet these new goals by 2030. The SDGs offer a new vision, and new challenges, for development actors around the world.

The SDGs are wider in scale and in ambition than the MDGs. They consist of 17 goals, 169 targets and 231 unique indicators (established to monitor progress). The SDGs are also different from the MDGs in that they are universal – covering every country in the world – and no longer applicable only to developing countries.

The adoption of « Agenda 2030 » has brought together different international agendas by merging economic, social or environmental aspects of development questions. The SDGs also put inequality at the heart of the agenda through strong inclusivity for the poorest and most vulnerable, as well through the guiding principle that global development should “leave no-one behind”.

However, implementing the SDGs will require a financial investment on an unprecedented scale, using all available sources – private as well as public financing. Monitoring the implementation of the SDGs through the 244 agreed indicators in the framework will also be a technical challenge on an unprecedented scale. The least developed countries in particular will need support to build capacity to provide the quality statistics and data necessary to measure progress in implementing the goals.

History

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, including the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

In June 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, more than 178 countries adopted Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action to build a global partnership for sustainable development to improve human lives and protect the environment.

Member States unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration at the Millennium Summit in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York. The Summit led to the elaboration of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce extreme poverty by 2015.

The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of Implementation, adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa in 2002, reaffirmed the global community’s commitments to poverty eradication and the environment, and built on Agenda 21 and the Millennium Declaration by including more emphasis on multilateral partnerships.

At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, Member States adopted the outcome document “The Future We Want” in which they decided, inter alia, to launch a process to develop a set of SDGs to build upon the MDGs and to establish the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The Rio +20 outcome also contained other measures for implementing sustainable development, including mandates for future programmes of work in development financing, small island developing states and more.

In 2013, the General Assembly set up a 30-member Open Working Group to develop a proposal on the SDGs.

In January 2015, the General Assembly began the negotiation process on the post-2015 development agenda. The process culminated in the subsequent adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 17 SDGs at its core, at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015.

2015 was a landmark year for multilateralism and international policy shaping, with the adoption of several major agreements:

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (March 2015)

Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development (July 2015)

Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 SDGs was adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York in September 2015.

Paris Agreement on Climate Change (December 2015)

Now, the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development serves as the central UN platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs.

Today, the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) provides substantive support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues, including water, energy, climate, oceans, urbanization, transport, science and technology, the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR), partnerships and Small Island Developing States. DSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide implementation of the 2030 Agenda and on advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs. In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.

From MDGs to SDGs: What are the Sustainable Development Goals? 

Download the pdf from this link : From MDGs to SDGs: What are the Sustainable Development Goals? 

MDGs 

In 2000, the Millennium Declaration identified fundamental values essential to international relations (A/RES/55/2). The Millennium Development Goals set targets for realizing these values around the world by 2015 and served as the focus for UN work throughout the period:

  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  2. Achieve universal primary education
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women
  4. Reduce child mortality
  5. Improve maternal health
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability
  8. Global partnership for development