Last week, leaders of U.N. member states began talks on the Sustainable Development Goals. Beginning 2016, the SDGs will guide the efforts of governments, international organizations, nongovernment organizations and others on some of our largest collective challenges — reducing poverty and disease, and protecting our natural resources and environment.
However, the current draft SDGs are not fit for their purpose: to influence future decisions and mobilize actions. In September 2015, the 70th U.N. General Assembly will approve the final set of goals. We have one year to fix the SDGs — and we must.
The SDGs are the next generation of global goals that began with the Millennium Development Goals, which political leaders agreed upon in 2000. The MDGs quickly became a rallying cry. Governments, NGOs, the United Nations, the World Bank and many others focused their work on the goals, and the MDGs made a difference. Foreign aid from developed countries increased by 5.4 percent per year between 2000 and 2008, after adjusting for inflation. More importantly, our research at Dalberg shows that there was acceleration in progress on several important goals, following the adoption and promotion of the MDGs. Numbers of tuberculosis and HIV cases were escalating prior to 2000, and now are declining rapidly. Maternal mortality rates have declined at faster rates since 2000, as have deaths of young children.
About the author
Paul Callan
Paul Callan is Dalberg’s regional director of the Middle East and North Africa region, based in Abu Dhabi. He also co-leads Dalberg Advisors' Strategy and Performance practice area. Paul has provided advice on strategy, organizational development, design of new initiatives, and change management to many United Nations agencies, the World Bank, regional development banks, nongovernmental organizations, donors, and governments.
