[ On Sep. 25, 2015, the Post-2015 Development Agenda was adopted at the United Nations Summit/Source: UN Photo, Cia park ]
On Sep. 25, 2015, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and leaders of 193 UN member states gathered at the UN Headquarters to reach an agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals (hereinafter the “SDGs”) to make a better world and environment over the next 15 years, starting from 2016 to 2030.
Common Goals of Global Society for Past 15 years, Millennium Development Goals
Before we introduce the SDGs, we would like to first look at the Millennium Development Goals (hereinafter the “MDGs”) which had been declared in 2000 and served as the common goal of the global community for the past 15 years and review what we have achieved. MDGs consist of eight goals including halving extreme poverty and hunger and 18 targets which were planned to be achieved until 2015. They were adopted unanimously in Sep. 2000 by 189 world leaders.
Eight goals of the MDGs are the following:
Goal 1. Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty
Goal 2. Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4. Reduce child mortality
Goal 5. Improve maternal health
Goal 6. Combat HIV/AIDs, Malaria and other diseases
Goal 7. Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8. Develop a global partnership for development
Achievements of MDGs
For the past 15 years, the international community made concerted efforts to achieve the MDGs that were launched to eradicate poverty and improve quality of life. The MDGs became a turning point of the international development paradigm from the former aid-centered paradigm targeting economic growth to international cooperative system targeting human-centered social development. In addition, the MDGs have changed our notion that poverty is not an issue of a single country but a global issue, and at the same time, they served as an opportunity to once again emphasize the importance of Official Development Assistance (ODA) which had been losing its ground.
■ Video Clip of Achievements of Eight Goals of MDGs
Through the MDGs, poverty has been reduced in the shortest time in history, and it has been evaluated that remarkable achievements have been made in terms of promoting primary education and health sector in developing countries. However, the MDGs have faced criticism that their outcomes have rather aggravated inequality since the goals failed to reflect individual countries’ and regional imbalance due to insufficient participation of the civil society and experts since the beginning. Furthermore, there are skeptical views that the achievements are partial since the MDGs simplified too much the various aspects of poverty and financial resources required to achieve the goals.
New Goals of International Community, Sustainable Development Goals
Based on the achievements and limitations of the MDGs, the international community has started to discuss the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), taking the Rio+20 conference as an opportunity.
[ UN Secretary General Ban, Ki-moon is delivering an opening speech at the Rio+20 conference held in Brazil/Source: UN Photo, Eskinder Debebe ]
Sustainable Development is defined as the “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” (WCED, 1987) and regarded as the process of change that makes all activities that lead to current development consider the needs of future generations through system improvement, technologies, resources and environmental protection. Here, development, which takes into account the needs of future generations, can be realized when the three pillars of “social development-economic growth-environmental protection” are well balanced. This is why the international community suggested the SDGs under the goal of achieving development that can balance the three pillars of sustainability, going beyond the MDGs which simply focused on developing the developing countries. As can be seen in the UN Secretary General’s report, sustainable development has been suggested as the vision and goal of humanity that can be pursued in case of multi-dimensional emergency.
Proposal for the SDGs were forwarded to the UN General Assembly in Jul. 2014 after some year-long activities of the UN Open Working Group (OWG) and agreement of the member states, and currently, they are included in the Post-2015 Development Agenda as goals and targets. For about two years, civic society, academia, private organizations and experts voiced their own opinions through the UN OWG and inter-governmental meeting for the Post-2015 Development Agenda inside and outside of the UN. As a result, the SDGs developed into global comprehensive goals containing 17 goals and 169 targets.
[ Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs ]
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
The SDGs emphasize new keynotes such as “Inclusiveness,” “Universality,” and “Equality” along with the former keynote of poverty eradication from the MDGs. Also, goals of sustainable economic growth along with social development and environmental conservation are highlighted. This is the result of efforts made by multiple stakeholders for quite a long time to balance the three pillars of sustainable development.
Meanwhile, increasing number of people has raised doubts in regards to the effectiveness of the SDGs which are including vast plans. In addition, the principle of “Universality,” which is stressed in the SDGs, mixed parts regarding domestic implementation and the role as a donor country (advanced country), so there are voices of concern that the goals and targets may be interpreted in various ways.
※ Data Source: Current Status of SDGs and Responsive Measures (2015, KOICA), Youtube, UN
