Sustainable Development: Stories from Those Making it Possible

The year 2015 marks an important date in the global agenda setting for the future of sustainable development. The Rio+20 Summit in 2012 resolved to ending extreme poverty and hunger as well as achieving sustainable development as a matter of urgency. The summit’s final outcome document, “The Future We Want”, called for new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and led to the launch of an intergovernmental Open Working Group to make recommendations to the UN General Assembly on the goals. The new goals will aim to provide a comprehensive and holistic framework on eradicating poverty and deprivation, improving our economies, protecting our environment and promoting peace and good governance in all countries around the world. In July 2014, the Open Working Group (OWG) concluded its deliberations and recommended 17 global sustainable development goals and 169 accompanying targets. The OWG’s recommendations were informed by a variety of inputs, from several sectors and agencies. The goals have been endorsed in the UN Secretary General’s synthesis report, ‘The Road to Dignity By 2030’. In 2015, an Inter-governmental Committee was established to finalize the negations of the Post 2015 Development Agenda that includes the SDGs. This Committee has commenced a full intergovernmental negotiation in January 2015. Over the course of 6 months, they will focus on stocktaking (January 19-21), the declaration (February 17-20), the sustainable development goals and targets (March 23-27), means of implementation and global partnerships (April 20-24), follow up and review (May 18-22) and intergovernmental negotiations on the outcome document (June 22- 25, July 20-24, and July 27-31). The final outcome document from this negotiation will form the basis of an SDG Declaration, to be endorsed by Heads of State at a Summit in September 2015 during the United Nations General Assembly. This year will also be witness to three high-level events that are set to take place between July and December. In July, world leaders will meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to agree to a financing plan for sustainable development. And in December, they will meet in Paris to adopt a global agreement to head off the growing dangers of human-induced climate change. Together, these events offer a unique opportunity to direct the global development agenda onto a path of equitable and sustainable growth.