2015 marks
the year that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire. There has been considerable debate over what
should replace them, but the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will
come into force in September this year, have almost been finalized.
How important
are the SDGs? They are designed as a
universal set of targets and goals that the 193 UN members will use to frame
their agendas and policies until 2030.
So far, so important. The reality
is likely to be more complex; the MDGs – though theoretically applicable to all
states – were considered in reality as targets for the poorest countries. The role of the developed world was generally
seen as limited to finance. Efforts are
being made to ensure that the SDGs are different, and that the targets are all
seen as equally applicable to all states.
At the very least, we can be sure that the rhetoric and framework of the
goals will pop up again and again over the coming decades, and it’s therefore
worth both acquiring a good working knowledge of what they are and what they mean,
and maintaining a critical perspective as to ways in which these goals can and
cannot help us.
I’ve been
thinking a lot about the sustainable development goals recently. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, they are absolutely at the center of
the mission of CIRSD here in Belgrade. Vuk Jeremic, founder and president of
the organization, was President of the 67th session of the UN
General Assembly. During his time in
office he played a key role in shaping the UN post-2015 sustainable development
agenda, and this is something that he’s deeply passionate about; it’s no
coincidence that CIRSD stands for Center for International Relations and Sustainable
Development. Vuk – and CIRSD – believe passionately
in the need for the rallying call provided by a set of concrete targets, and
also in the philosophy that it is entirely essential that development both works
for everyone and takes a long-term view; helping one individual at the expense
of another, or at the expense of the future, is no solution.
And this of
course, is entirely right in theory. The
‘practice of sustainability’ can be much harder. I’ve been faced with this fact in a number of
different ways over the years; it was a problem when working for the Central
Bank of Sierra Leone (as trade-offs that are clear in theory become much more
murky during resource-constrained policy making), it’s been a central theme of
many of my courses at Harvard, and now I’m spending my days at CIRSD reading
(and re-reading and re-reading!) pieces by politicians and practitioners who
grapple with these issues every day.
But back to
the new set of goals. I’ve copied both
the MDGs and SDGs in to the bottom of this article (for ease of reference), and
I wanted to set down some thoughts based on what I’m doing and reading at the
moment.
The first
point that jumps out, clearly, is that there are many more SDGs than MDGs. Each SDG is also more complex than each MDG
as it contains a number of subsidiary targets; there are 169 specific targets
across the 17 goals. This is a response
to a common criticism of the MDGs, which is that they were too narrow, and
failed to consider the root causes of many issues. There was also criticism both that human
rights were neglected, and that the goals should address economic development
more explicitly, rather than simply focusing on extreme poverty. The resulting SDGs are clearly more
exhaustive, but they are therefore also less succinct, and therefore perhaps
less able to form a simple, coherent rallying call. By broadening are focus are we, in fact, in
danger of losing focus on the things that matter most?
There are
some obvious shifts of focus in the SDGs compared to the MDGs, summed up nicely
by this graphic from
the Guardian Newspaper. 
This graphic first appeared in the Guardian article "Sustainable Development Goals: Changing the World in 17 Steps", accessible here.
The most
obvious winners? The ‘Planet’ (hooray!)
and ‘Prosperity’. And the losers? ‘People’ and ‘Dignity’ were clearly the focus
of the MDGs, but have had their importance (at least numerically) significantly
watered down in the SDGs. Does this
matter? I think so.
To make this
more concrete, let’s focus on gender issues, which are very close to my
heart. MDGs 3 and 5 clearly have a strong
gender focus, as does SDGs 5. Other SDGs
clearly have a gender angle, not least in the insistence on ‘inclusion’ or ‘inclusiveness’
in no less than five. But in moving from
8 simple goals to 17 more complex ones I cannot help but feel that gender is
less center-stage than it used to be.
This is not, of course, to argue that any of the other goals are
unimportant or unnecessary, but I think we should be very aware of the fact
that the new, broader goals will make it easier for the focus to turn away from
women’s rights. And this is something that
we should both be prepared for, and actively fight.
The other
thing that struck me in reading through these goals is that one can almost see politics in action. Again, I’m going to take gender as an
example. If we look at the specific
gender-related targets (which I’ve put at the base of this post) there are a
couple of sentence-ends that were clearly afterthoughts. The most egregious, perhaps, are the ending
to 5.4 (ie we should properly value domestic/unpaid work “as nationally
appropriate”) and 5.7 (that we should give women equal economic rights “in
accordance with national laws”). Now I
understand the need for politicians to be pragmatic – really I do – but this seems
staggeringly unambitious. So anything
enshrined in law is sacrosanct? Should we not be aspiring to change state and
judicial systems, rather than simply to act within their current parameters?
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
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
Partnerships for Development
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
1) End
poverty in all its forms everywhere
2) End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and
promote sustainable agriculture
3) Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all
ages
4) Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all
5) Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6) Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and
sanitation for all
7) Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern
energy for all
8) Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth,
full and productive employment, and decent work for all
9) Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and
sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation
10) Reduce inequality within and among countries
11) Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient
and sustainable
12) Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13) Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14) Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine
resources for sustainable development
15) Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial
ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and
reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss
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
17) Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the
global partnership for sustainable development
(And within
the SDGs – not added here! – are a proposed 169 targets to make concrete the
aims of each.)
Targets sitting underneath SDG5:
5.1 end all
forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
5.2 eliminate
all forms of violence against all women and girls in public and private
spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
5.3 eliminate
all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage, and female
genital mutilations
5.4 recognise
and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public
services, infrastructure and social protection policies, and the promotion of
shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally
appropriate
5.5 ensure
women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership
at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life
5.6 ensure
universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as
agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of theICPD and the Beijing Platform for Action and the
outcome documents of their review conferences
5.7 undertake
reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to
ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial
services, inheritance, and natural resources in accordance with national laws
5.8 enhance
the use of enabling technologies, in particular ICT, to promote women’s
empowerment
5.9 adopt
and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of
gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels, adopt
and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of
gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels
