Sustainable DevelopmentGoals Teach-In

Friday October 23, 2015

Facilitated by Martin S. Edwards

Associate Professor SHU Diplomacy

martin.edwards@shu.edu

• Overview of the Goals (Edwards)

• Break• Breakout Sessions (3)• Break• Op-Ed Writing (Edwards) • Advocacy (Neel)

Today’s Agenda:

• James Daly (Education): Goal 4

• Nalin Johri (SHMS): Goal 3

• Alyson Neel (UN Fdn): Goal 5

• Joseph O’Mahoney (Dipl): Goal 16

• Catherine Tinker (Dipl): Goals 6, 14, and 15

Breakout Sessions:

• The UN at 70• Recapping the MDG

Experience• From the MDGs to the SDGs• Some Unanswered

Questions• Bigger Lessons

Agenda:

• Inspiring external evaluation: • Integrated Commission on

Multilateralism• Commission on Global Security, Justice,

and Governance• Inspiring UN internal appraisals:• 1325 Review• HIPPO Panel

• Inspiring policymaking:• Financing for Development (July)• Post 2015 Development Agenda Summit

(September)• Paris Climate Change Summit (Nov-Dec)

The UN at 70:

• Unveiled the Sustainable Development Goals• Goals and Targets• Means of Implementation• Follow-Up and Review Process

• The SDGs are the follow-up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which have been completed

• The SDGs are intended to guide global policymaking until 2030

The September summit

• Several places, actually!• OECD DAC, which created

International Development Goals in 1996

• UN, which held a Millennium Assembly in September 2000

• Intensive follow-ups to produce a composite list of goals, targets, and indicators

Where did the MDGs come from?

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

• The UN at 70• Recapping the MDG

Experience• From the MDGs to the SDGs• Some Unanswered

Questions• Bigger Lessons

Agenda:

• A good overview is at the link below, but this is not without problems: • http://

mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2015/Progress_E.pdf

Recapping the MDG Experience

• Answering the “Did the MDGs work?” question isn’t easy:• Counterfactual: What would

countries have done had the MDGs not existed?

• Respecting the baseline: These goals were ambitious!

• Implementation: The pathway from goal to outcome is complex

• What’s the question? Are we ascertaining if the targets were met, or are we measuring something else?

Recapping the MDG Experience

• Whether targets were met varies regionally:• Target 1a (Halve, between 1990 and

2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day) was met globally, but not in SSA

• Child mortality (Target 4a) has been cut considerably, but progress in Oceania has been especially difficult• Again, the target was a 2/3

reduction. We’re at more than 50% globally.

Here’s what we know:

• Domestic conditions matter:• In conflict-affected countries, the

proportion of out-of-school children has increased since 1999

• Urban-rural divides in developing countries make progress on child and maternal mortality difficult

• Progress on many targets hampered by global recession

• Lack of data is also a barrier to policymaking

Here’s what we know:

• More countries produce better data: • The percentage of developing countries

that had two or more data points for at least 16 of the 22 MDG indicators rose from 2% in 2003 to 79% in 2014.

• Domestic reforms do make a difference:• A forthcoming UNDP-commissioned

study of 50 countries found that 2/3 of them developed national strategies for reaching the MDGs.

Here’s what we know:

• Need to change the process and make it more inclusive

• Need to change the focus to the world as a whole

• Need to change the goals themselves to focus on improving states too

• Need to rethink monitoring of the goals to make sure they’re met

• Need to strengthen data architecture so that countries measure what counts

Lessons from the MDG Experience

• The UN at 70• Recapping the MDG

Experience• From the MDGs to the SDGs• Some Unanswered

Questions• Bigger Lessons

Agenda:

• Key Document: Rio + 20 Summit Declaration (2012)• SD has three dimensions

• Economic• Social • Environmental

• Called for the formation of an Open Working Group and extensive civil society involvement in creating the goals

From MDGs to SDGs

• Technology provided another input to the goals• World We Want survey: 7 ½ million

people voted worldwide on priorities for their families

• Top two priorities: education and health

• But note! The next two priorities are not in MDGs:• Better job opportunities• Honest and responsive

government

From MDGs to SDGs

Does the MyWorld survey suggest the US is different?

Top US Priorities1. A good education2. An honest and responsive

government3. Access to clean water and

sanitation4. Affordable and nutritious

food5. Better healthcare6. Freedom from

discrimination and persecution

Global Priorities1. A good education2. Better healthcare3. Better job opportunities4. An honest and responsive

government5. Affordable and nutritious

food6. Protection against crime

and violence

• Open Working Group• Originally had 30 members, then

moved to 70• US shared a seat with Canada and

Israel • 2 co-chairs appointed: Perm Reps

from Hungary and Kenya• Civil Society offered advice

through 9 Major Groups and other stakeholders

From MDGs to SDGs

Sustainable Development Goals

• Consistent Themes: • Poverty, Hunger, Health, Education,

Gender, Environment• Some New Wrinkles:• Access to Energy• Infrastructure• Growth and Employment• Inequality• Cities• Governance• Climate Change*

Comparing the Lists

• The goals are more ambitious for those that ‘carried over’• Poverty: Eliminate extreme poverty

($1.25/day)• Hunger: End malnutrition• Health: End preventable deaths of

newborns and children under 5• Gender: End discrimination, VAW,

and child marriage, forced marriage and FGM.

Comparing the Lists

• MDGs had eight goals (such as “Improve Maternal Health”) and 18 targets (“Reduce under-five mortality rate by 2/3 between 1990 and 2015”)

• By contrast, the SDGs have 17 goals and 169 targets

• Put another way: the SDGs are the MDGs on steroids!

Key Difference: Scale

• The sheer number of goals and targets has invited criticism.

• It is hard to imagine the alternatives.

• We committed to a public process based on an expansive view of SD, and this was the outcome.

• The SG’s attempt to reframe the goals by grouping them under six headings failed to catch on.

Too Big to Work?

• The UN at 70• Recapping the MDG

Experience• From the MDGs to the SDGs• Some Unanswered

Questions• Bigger Lessons

Agenda:

• Indicator Overload• Follow up and review• Footing the Bill for Post-2015

Some Unanswered Questions

• With more goals and targets, there are more indicators, which places a strain on state capacity. Indicators are to be completed next year.

• At present, only 17% of the 300+ proposed indicators are feasible by National Statistical Offices

Indicator Overload

• Needs to be substantive to be consequential

• Example that’s often referenced is Universal Periodic Review

• Three questions• Is the review process going to name

and shame?• How will it avoid burdening

countries?• How will national and regional level

reviews work?

Follow up and review

• Financing for Development (FfD) talks held over the summer in Addis

• States are paying their own way through creating stronger tax systems• Para 51: “We encourage ODA

providers to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to LDCs.”

Footing the Bill for Post-2015

• It’s not surprising that FfD agreement was more ambiguous than SDGs• States negotiate harder over $!

Financing for Development (FfD)

• Ambiguity!• What makes the SDGs work is

their clarity. • FfD outcome document far

from this standard• Agreement language doesn’t

obligate states• Doesn’t outline benchmarks

Key difference between SDGs and FfD

• The UN at 70• Recapping the MDG

Experience• From the MDGs to the SDGs• Some Unanswered

Questions• Bigger Lessons

Agenda:

• Post-2015 agenda is packaged as a done deal, but it still a work in progress.

• International cooperation is always a difficult balancing act of reconciling different interests. This is as true today as when the UN was founded.

Bigger Lessons

• Involving civil society in the development of SDGs has been a game-changer.

• The future of the Post-2015 agenda, though, turns on how much civil society can help turn pledges into action.

Bigger Lessons

STAGE

Education Gender

HealthOceans, Land, Water

Peace and Justice

EXIT

THANKS SO MUCH!

For more info:@MartinSEdwards

martin.edwards@shu.edu