Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 11/2012

Post-2015 Development Agenda: Goals, Targets and Indicators

Barry Carin, Nicole Bates-Eamer, Min Ha Lee, Wonhyuk Lim with Mukesh Kapila

October 2012

Centre for International Governance Innovation

Abstract

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have, overall, been remarkably successful in focusing attention and mobilizing resources to address the major gaps in human development. By 2015, the world will have met some of the MDGs’ key targets, such as halving the poverty rate, and will have come close to completing primary education for all children; however, achieving the health goals looks difficult and Africa lags behind, despite the substantial progress it has made since 2000. The product of a consortium of organizations led by CIGI and the Korea Development Institute (KDI), this special report examines the targets that have been met and considers the global implications of the remaining unmet goals. The Post-2015 Development Agenda concludes that the global community must build on the current MDGs, moving beyond meeting basic human needs in order to promote dynamic, inclusive and sustainable development. Future goals must reach beyond traditional development thinking to become sustainable one-world goals that apply to poor and rich countries alike. These goals should not only provide for basic human needs, but also ensure essential human rights and create enabling conditions to help individuals realize their potential. The report reviews a menu of indicators for the candidate goals to inform the future process of selecting the post-2015 successors to the MDGs. Written by CIGI Senior Fellow Barry Carin; Nicole Bates-Eamer, a research assistant at the Centre for Global Studies; Min Ha Lee, research associate at KDI’s Global Economy Research Division; and Wonhyk Lim, Director of Global Economy Research at KDI, the report will be presented in November 2012 to the UN officials responsible for proposals for post-2015 development goals to succeed the MDGs. It is also being presented to the lead author of the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel, to diplomats at the United Nations, to World Bank officials, and to representatives of civil society organizations and researchers in New York City and Washington.