UN Adopts Sustainable Development Goals

In achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the joint effort and cooperation of countries and people across the world has demonstrated clearly the importance of the existence of a common global agenda in order to tackle challenges such as poverty eradication. Global reduction of the main challenges to development still remains relevant for the world despite having achieved impressive results in the last 15 years.

This 15-year cycle of accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals concludes this year. In practical terms, speaking of Georgia, delivering on the MDGs has meant real changes in people’s lives, from a significant reduction in extreme poverty to increased access to schooling for young children, from new laws to protect human rights and prevent discrimination to reduced child and maternal mortality, stronger measures to protect the environment and protect people from natural disasters, and much more.

To maintain this momentum, address targets still not achieved under the MDGs and introduce critical new aspects, especially in the area of governance transparency and accountability, the world again came together at the UN last month to craft a new global agenda that defines world development priorities beyond 2015.

The newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reinforcing the MDGs, are a global call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all human beings enjoy peace and prosperity. The 17 Global Goals consist of 169 targets and will guide policy and funding for the next 15 years. Building on the successes of the MDGs, the Global Goals include new areas such as economic inequality, innovation, climate change, sustainable consumption, and peace and justice. The SDGs are universal, inclusive and a bold commitment to people and the planet.

Shombi Sharp, Deputy Head of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in Georgia, commented on the importance of the SDGs: “For middle-income and transition countries like Georgia, the Sustainable Development Goals represent an important means of linking a broad range of important, interconnected development priorities within one framework. More than ever before, challenges such as making sure that growth not only exists, but that it is sustainable and its benefits broadly shared, that society is inclusive and protective of the rights of all citizens, and that the government is accountable – these are all both non-negotiable and fully achievable. We are now working with the Government Administration, which is already leading the way towards mapping how SDG targets relate to existing national priorities and strategies, from the Georgia 2020 document and the Association Agreement, to the National Human Rights Strategy and Action Plan and many others, to mutually deliver on the aspirations so clearly demanded by over 10,000 Georgians in the post-2015 My World survey.”

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals include:

Goal 1- End poverty in all its forms, everywhere

Goal 2 - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3 - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all, at all ages

Goal 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6 - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7 - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9 - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 10 - Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12 - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Goal 14 - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 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

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

Goal 17 - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

World leaders formally adopted the SDGs at a three day summit in New York at UN headquarters in September 25-27. All of the UN’s 193 Member States participated in the summit. The UNDP also co-organized the Social Good Summit, which ran parallel to the SDG Summit and examined the impact of technology and new media on human development worldwide. More than 100 countries hosted their own Social Good Summits in order to bring the Global Goals to prominence. The new SDGs and targets will be coming into effect on 1st January 2016.