They have been under discussion for years, many international gatherings have been organized to finalize them, hundreds of civil society let meetings were held to lobby for the best new development goals possible. Here we are with them. Certainly the new Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs are far more comprehensive than the predecessors Millennium Development Goals but it is also truth that we have now many more goals with many more indicators and it will be harder to track them down and monitor.
Yet like before, it will all depend on the political will of the nations in the developed and developing world (I am aware that somehow this separation between rich and poor is fast eroding) to put them in practice. It will depend a lot on the power of new trade agreements and how these new multilateral pacts right now being negotiated among different regional blocs can succeed to establish a fairer, more bottom up approach to capitalism. A lot will also depend on the capacity of the governments to establish stronger accountability systems at national but also at local levels and a lot will also up to the capacity of donor nations to come up with a stronger aid for development approach able to reduce the duplications. It will interesting to see how non state actors both not for profit and for profit will react and take the lead in the implementation of these goals. Being able to work in partnership will remain essential and we know that this is easier to be said than to be done. Will they have the willingness to achieve and implement synergies on the ground? Will they be able to create consortia that are united not only by fundraising objectives? Will we see more cooperation and maybe even more mergers among international not for profits? Will their overheads be better accounted for and regulated in a more transparent way? Will we see also some salary caps on the CEOs of the big not for profits?
Hopefully the private sector will be much more incisive and play a key role where corporate social responsibility practices will be overtaken by smarter ways of doing business that can bring profits but also create shared value.
Development is all about working in a team. Borrowing from the football jargon, the governments should be the playmakers with the private sector and the I/NGOs being the forwards attacking and eradicating poverty and inequalities.
The new SDGs should provide a framework for action. It will be up to different players and stakeholders to put it into action.
To read the full Draft outcome document of the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post 2015 development agenda: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/L.85&Lang=E
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