Bringing the goals home — is the UK government ready for the SDGs?

The sustainable development goals set to be adopted by global leaders in New York represent a marked departure from their predecessors — the Millennium Development Goals — due to their universality, with commitments applying to rich as well as poor countries. This makes them potentially transformative, defining a new relationship of mutual accountability between the “global north” and the “global south,” yet it also throws up the question as to whether the U.K. government is really ready to bring these goals back home.

The Bond “Beyond 2015” campaign has already been thinking through how to implement the goals in the U.K., outlining a series of detailed options in its recent paper, Bringing the Goals Home. In the immediate term we’re calling on the government to take forward a five-point plan after the New York summit to kick-start implementation in the U.K.

1. There needs to be political commitment at the highest level to deliver the goals, with vocal and public support from the prime minister, building on the leading role his government has taken in the post-2015 discussions and exemplified by his co-chairing of the High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda in 2013. Continuing in this spirit following the summit in New York — and ensuring oversight for implementation of the SDGs from the heart of government — will send the right signal to all government departments as to the seriousness with which this government is taking this agenda.