Introduction :-
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also called Global Goals are a proposed set of targets relating to future international development. They are to replace the Millennium Development Goals once those expire at the end of 2015.
The SDGs were first formally discussed at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 (Rio+20).
On 19 July 2014, the UN General Assembly's Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) forwarded a proposal for the SDGs to the Assembly. The proposal contained 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues. These included ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests.On 4 December 2014, the UN General Assembly accepted the Secretary-General's Synthesis Report which stated that the agenda for the post-2015 SDG process would be based on the OWG proposals.
The Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post 2015 Development Agenda (IGN) began in January 2015 and ended in August 2015. Following the negotiations, a final document was adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit September 25–27, 2015 in New York, USA.
The title of the agenda is Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
SDG's Facts :-
Starting from 1 january 2016 to 2030 for 15 years .
17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years.
With this the era of MDGs or the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched in September 2000 is over.
The Sustainable Development Goals aim to encourage countries and the private sector to focus simultaneously on the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic prosperity, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.
How SDG's are Different From MDG's :-
The Sustainable Development Goals build on the Millennium Development Goals (or MDGs), which were agreed by governments in 2000 and expire this year.
The MDGs focused on reducing poverty and hunger and improving health and education in developing countries.
The MDGs did not specifically address economic development or infrastructure and were not seen as relevant to developed countries. While one of the MDGs (goal 7) sought to ensure environmental sustainability, most of the focus under this goal has been on the target to halve the proportion of the population without safe drinking water or sanitation.
In some respects the MDGs have been phenomenally successful. They have helped focus the efforts of governments, aid organisations and philanthropists on reducing poverty and improving health and education in developing countries. The extreme poverty rate in developing countries has plummeted from 47 per cent in 1990 to 14 per cent in 2015.
Across the world, tremendous progress has been made in enrolling children in primary school, and even in Sub-Saharan Africa, primary school enrolment increased from 60 per cent in 2000 to 80 per cent in 2015. Real successes have been achieved in the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and there has been substantial progress in reducing child and maternal mortality.
However the MDGs have been criticised as being too narrow and failing to link together the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. Many of the challenges the world faces require a global effort from all countries, not just developing countries.
What are the 17 Goals??
The Sustainable Development Goals, which will take over from the Millennium Development Goals after this year, will guide efforts to reduce poverty and improve well-being up to 2030, without destroying the earth. There are 17 goals, further broken down into 169 targets.
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Despite the significant increase in global population, the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined. The World Bank estimates that there were approximately 1 billion people living in extreme poverty in 2011, down from 1.96 billion in 1981.
Sub-Saharan African countries contain the highest percentage of the population who are living in extreme poverty. Since 1981, this region has been the only region that saw a rise in the number of people in extreme poverty - from 52.81% in 1981 to a high of 60.84% in 1993. The figure has since decreased to 46.85% in 2011.
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
The UN estimates that there are about 795 million people who are undernourished, with the majority (about 780 million) living in developing countries. But the proportion of undernourished people in the developing regions has reduced by almost half since 1990.
Targets include to reduce global maternal deaths to less than 70 women per 100,000 live births. In 2013, the global maternal deaths were 210 deaths per 100,000 live births, a reduction of over 40% since 1990.
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Targets include to ensure all children complete free primary and secondary education by 2030. While the number of children out of primary school has reduced in most regions, some African regions still have relatively high rates of children not attending primary and secondary schools.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Targets include to eliminate practices such as child marriages and female genital mutilation.
Countries with high rates
Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Targets include universal access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030. There are about 760 million people without access to safe drinking water - the majority in African countries.
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Targets include to ensure universal access to affordable modern energy services, and to substantially increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Targets to achieve at least 7% of GDP growth per year in the least developed countries, and also to substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training.
Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Targets include to enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries. The goal aims to increase the number of research and development workers, particularly in developing countries.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
Targets include to progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40% of the population at a rate higher than the national average.
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Targets include to ensure all people have access to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services. The goal also aims to upgrade the infrastructure of slums around the world.
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Targets include to increase the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources. The goal aims to halve the amount of food wasted (per capita) at the retail and consumer levels and also to reduce food losses along production and supply chains
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
The aims are to strengthen the capacity of countries to adapt to climate-related hazards and natural disasters. The goal targets include to integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.
Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Targets include to implement science-based fishing management plans, and to end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by 2020. The goal also hopes to conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas by 2020.
Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Targets include to take significant urgent action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.
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
Targets include to significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere.
Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
Targets include to provide additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources.
How far have we got to go?
Despite the great advances in poverty alleviation and development, there are still around 800 million people living in extreme poverty or suffering from hunger. In some areas the world has gone backwards. In most countries relative inequality has increased.
Climate change, deforestation and environmental degradation now threaten to undermine future well-being and the development gains that have been achieved. Global greenhouse gases are now more than 50 per cent higher than in 1990 and deforestation, desertification and collapsing fisheries threaten the livelihoods of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
The fact that all the world’s countries have been able to agree on a set of goals and targets for sustainable development – a sort of “to do list” for a better world is important in itself. As the Declaration accompanying the goals states: “Never before have world leaders pledged common action and endeavour across such a broad and universal policy agenda”.
The goals are a tremendous opportunity to spur government, civil society, academic and business action, and set benchmarks against which they will be held accountable. Hopefully the goals will also increase public awareness of the need for sustainable development and mobilise networks of expertise to focus on finding solutions to the world’s key sustainable development challenges.
Comments from World Leaders :-
The new agenda is a promise by leaders to all people everywhere. It is an agenda for people, to end poverty in all its forms – an agenda for the planet, our common home,” declared UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the opening ceremony of the UN Sustainable Development Summit, in New York. Now, we must use the goals to transform the world. We will do that through partnership and through commitment. We must leave no one behind, he added.
General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft called the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development “ambitious” in confronting the injustices of poverty, marginalisation and discrimination. “We recognise the need to reduce inequalities and to protect our common home by changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. And, we identify the overwhelming need to address the politics of division, corruption and irresponsibility that fuel conflict and hold back development,” he said.
The adoption of the goals was preceded by an address by Pope Francis. He urged the global leaders to take action to protect the environment. This was the first time in the 70-year-long history of UN that a Pope has attended the General Assembly.
The meeting also had responses from world leaders and NGOs. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the SDG agenda chimes strongly with India’s own strategies for ensuring sustainable development and empowering the poor. The world must look beyond the public and private sector in its development thinking, he added, and think also of the “personal sector”.
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