CIAO DATE: 12/2012
April 2012
Center on International Cooperation
This paper provides an overview of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their expected status in 2012; describes the background to, and options for, a post-2015 framework; and discusses how governments can best navigate the political challenges of agreeing to a new set of development goals. The MDGs were the fruit of a long effort to build consensus around a set of targets for reducing poverty. While not all goals will be met by 2015, the headline target (halving absolute poverty) will be comfortably exceeded. Progress in China has made a disproportionate contribution to the MDGs, but headway has been made in all regions, including Africa. Debate on the successor to the MDGs began in earnest in 2011 and has been influenced by developments elsewhere in the international system, such as the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States, and – above all – proposals in the run up to Rio+20 for a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). When considering options for new goals after 2015, there are five key questions. Are new goals needed? Should they be universal (7 billion people) or just apply to the most vulnerable (1-2 billion)? How broad should they be? Should SDGs subsume, be separate from, or complement the MDGs? And should the new goals be binding or aspirational?
Resource link: Beyond the Millennium Development Goals Agreeing to a Post-2015 Development Framework [PDF] - 193K