1. Sustainable Development Goals
SDGs
Abdul Razak Thaha
Fakultas Kesehatan Masyarakat Universitas Hasanuddin
Pertemuan Evalausi Program MDGs Bidang Kesehatan
Tahun Anggaran 2015
Wisma Yaki, Mamuju, 29-30 Juni 2015
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2. Post 2015 SDGs
• Lifting people out of poverty and protecting the
planet’s resources two sides of the same coin.
• UN system goal next two years: support Member
States arrive at one single and cohesive
development agenda for a post-2015 era with
sustainable development (SDGs) at its core to
realize a future with prosperity for all.
• The Post 2015 SDGs will go beyond aid and will
address three pillars of Sustainable Development:
Economic, Social, Environmental
3. Post 2015 SDGs
• Balance economic, social and environmental
goals and targets
• Expand MDG agenda: poverty, food, land,
jobs, youth, health, population dynamics,
water, sanitation, energy, growth, trade,
vulnerable countries, cities, transport, SCP,
forests, oceans, biodiversity, finance,
technology
• Possible new time horizon 2015 to 2030
4. Stocktaking ahead of setting the Post 2015
Development Agenda:
• Mixed record on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): improved quality of life of
billions, but did not focus enough on reaching the very poorest and most excluded people (as
per HL Panel Report on Post2015)
• MDGs did not integrate economic, social and environmental goals; were largely social in
focus
• MDGs did focus attention and action on key challenges, rallied world behind common
approach to development
• Much unfinished work to address extreme poverty and hunger, preventable disease and
deaths, rising inequalities and environmental crises, particularly climate change
• Most MDG targets still achievable by 2015: build momentum into 2015 and beyond
• Centrepiece of post-2015 development agenda: sustainable development goals (SDGs) to
build on MDGs, address inequalities and new challenges facing people and the planet.
5. Stocktaking ahead of setting the Post 2015
Development Agenda:
• Mixed record on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): improved quality of life of
billions, but did not focus enough on reaching the very poorest and most excluded people (as
per HL Panel Report on Post2015)
• MDGs did not integrate economic, social and environmental goals; were largely social in
focus
• MDGs did focus attention and action on key challenges, rallied world behind common
approach to development
• Much unfinished work to address extreme poverty and hunger, preventable disease and
deaths, rising inequalities and environmental crises, particularly climate change
• Most MDG targets still achievable by 2015: build momentum into 2015 and beyond
• Centrepiece of post-2015 development agenda: sustainable development goals (SDGs) to
build on MDGs, address inequalities and new challenges facing people and the planet.
6. From the MDGs to the SDGs
• SDGs: provide concrete and simple form to post 2015
development agenda
• SDGs: concentrate, galvanize action
• SDGs: provide for a new commitment period – coming
decades
• SDGs: new global partnerships and voluntary commitments
(1,382 since Rio+20), innovative finance
• SDGs: broader people and planet goals than MDGs, bolder
targets, more national differentiation (Rio principles)
• SDGs/P2015: draw on inputs of all stakeholders
7.
8. History of the MDGs
• International Development Goals (IDGs) emerged from a series of international
conferences (e.g. gender, children, health, education and population) in the 1990s.
• In 2000, the Millennium Declaration was adopted but did not contain the MDGs in
their present form. In 2001, a team of UN experts created the MDGs with
indicators, without any inter-governmental process.
“I and several of [Kofi Annan’s] staff literally went into the proverbial windowless
committee room and wrote the MDGs. I have spent many a year since wishing I
had taken a little more time to write them as I might have made them slightly
more inclusive and polished.”
- (Mark Malloch Brown, former UNDP Administrator, Feb 2011)
• Mainly European donors supported the MDGs, while the MDGs faced strong
opposition and skepticism from many governments as well as Northern and
Southern NGOs for the initial five years. By the latter half of the decade, the MDGs
had gained traction and became an important organizing principle for a large
number of development actors.
9. Strengths of the MDG Framework
• The limited number of goals and targets on which there is global
consensus and through which popular support and political action can be
mobilised.
• Useful leverage for increased aid volumes. (i.e. Millennium Project’s
estimated resource requirement became the target for G8 in Gleneagles in
2005.)
• Focused aid on the social sectors in general and on some specific areas,
such as primary education and child health.
• Useful vehicle for CSOs to hold their governments to account for the
public promise.
• MDGs encouraged the collection of better data to assess their progress.
10. Weaknesses of the MDG Framework
• Lack of participation in the formulation process
• Masking inequalities by focusing on the global and national averages.
• Lack of commitments by rich countries with the Goal 8 without specific
quantified targets or dates
• MDGs left out some key issues of importance to development (e.g. climate
change, conflict, security, disability)
11. Mid Point and the Way Forward
• Context: Economic and Financial Crisis; worsening peace and security;
impending energy and fuel crisis
• Review of the MDG progress at a High Level Meeting in the UN General
Assembly, 2010
• Secretary General’s report “Keeping the Promise” – roadmap and call to
action for MDG acceleration
• Secretary General’s 2011 report on MDG progress and key considerations
for a new agenda post 2015
12. Globally, mechanisms have been put in place to
support the post 2015 development debate
• UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons, and
23 panel members appointed by the SG to
advise him on post-2015 agenda.
• UNDP and UNDESA requested by SG to
establish a group of technical experts to
coordinate the assessment of system-wide
efforts, and propose a unified version and road
-map for a post 2015 development agenda, in
consultation with all stakeholders
• Rio + 20: High-level inter-governmental
working group to report to the SG on
Sustainable Development Goals
13. It was further agreed that SDGs must be:
• Action-oriented
• Concise
• Easy to communicate
• Limited in number
• Aspirational
• Global in nature
• Universally applicable to all countries while taking
into account different national realities,
capacities and levels of development and
respecting national policies and priorities.
14. The outcome document further specifies
that the development of SDGs should:
• Be useful for pursuing focused and coherent
action on sustainable development
• Contribute to the achievement of sustainable
development
• Serve as a driver for implementation and
mainstreaming of sustainable development in
the UN system as a whole
• Address and be focused on priority areas for
the achievement of sustainable development