A series of long-term trends, from climate change to demographics, are already reshaping the global landscape for policymakers and practitioners, just as they set their sights on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
That was the main takeaway for participants at the 2016 Global Forum on Development held at the Paris headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last Thursday.
“If you want the SDGs, it comes down to what you do to address the trends,” said Mario Pezzini, director of the OECD Development Center and acting director of the OECD development cooperation directorate. “Sometimes in the development community, we forget that this is a real world.”