The 2030 Agenda and the Global Goals

Overview

Seventeen Global Goals, promise to 'leave no one behind and sustainable development.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

   Model answer

   It is the plan of action for global development adopted by all United Nations member states at a summit in New York in September 2015, under the title 'Transforming our world'. It sets out 17 Sustainable Development Goals, also called the Global Goals, with 169 targets beneath them, running from 2016 to 2030. It replaced the Millennium Development Goals, which expired at the end of 2015, and unlike them it applies to every country in the world.

2. 2

   What is the overall aim of the 2030 Agenda?

   Model answer

   To end poverty in all its forms everywhere, protect the planet, and ensure that all people can enjoy peace and prosperity, by 2030. It is usually summarised under five headings: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. Its central organising promise is to 'leave no one behind', meaning that targets are not to be judged met until they are met for the poorest and most marginalised groups. It insists that economic, social and environmental development are indivisible and must be pursued together rather than traded off.

3. 3

   Name the seventeen Global Goals.

   Model answer

   One, no poverty. Two, zero hunger. Three, good health and well-being. Four, quality education. Five, gender equality. Six, clean water and sanitation. Seven, affordable and clean energy. Eight, decent work and economic growth. Nine, industry, innovation and infrastructure. Ten, reduced inequalities. Eleven, sustainable cities and communities. Twelve, responsible consumption and production. Thirteen, climate action. Fourteen, life below water. Fifteen, life on land. Sixteen, peace, justice and strong institutions. Seventeen, partnerships for the goals.

4. 4

   What does the promise to 'leave no one behind' mean in practice?

   Model answer

   It means progress is to be judged by what happens to the worst-off, not by the national average. In practice this requires data broken down by income, sex, age, disability, ethnicity, migration status and location, so that a target can only be recorded as met when it is met for every group. It was a direct response to the way the Millennium Development Goals allowed governments to hit national targets by reaching the easiest people first, leaving the poorest, remotest and most marginalised untouched. It is also the hardest part of the Agenda to deliver, because those groups are the most expensive to reach and the least well captured by existing statistics.

5. 5

   Which three dimensions of sustainable development does the Agenda try to balance, and why does that balance cause difficulty?

   Model answer

   The economic, the social and the environmental. Balancing them is difficult because the goals can pull against each other: raising incomes and industrial output tends to raise emissions and resource use; expanding farmland raises food output but clears forest; cheap energy supports growth but may be coal-fired. The Agenda insists the three are indivisible, but it provides no mechanism for deciding which to sacrifice when they conflict, leaving that to national governments.

6. 6

   What does 'sustainable development' mean, and why is it the organising idea of the Agenda?

   Model answer

   Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is the organising idea because the framework was written in the recognition that poverty reduction achieved by degrading soils, forests, fisheries, water supplies and the atmosphere would not last, and that climate change threatens to reverse development gains in exactly the poorest and most exposed countries. It makes the environment a condition of development rather than a competing priority.

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