UN’s post2015 goals raise bar for development
But views differ on the best approach
THE world’s most ambitious “fix-it” plan, the Millennium Development Goals, is up for renewal. The post-2015 goals have a new name, have more than doubled in number and have an estimated price tag of $2.5 trillion (about R30.6 trillion).
This time round, they’re called the Sustainable Development Goals, and the 193 UN member states, including South Africa, meet in September in New York to approve the final framework.
Fifteen years ago the world agreed to eight goals and 18 targets. The new list has 17 goals and 169 targets.
Critics of the longer list warn that broad focus dilutes resources and funds. Others say wider consultation has allowed more contextual framing and better understanding of the complexity of the critical needs facing the world today.
Neither side is wrong, but neither holds the silver bullet to ensure that in 2030 the Sustainable Development Goals will be ticked off as having been achieved. What will matter is how governments prioritise goals and commit to programmes that will make them count.
Olsen Chulu, economic adviser for the UN Development Programme in South Africa, says the Sustainable Development Goals are informed by lessons learnt over the past 15 years.
“The Millennium Development Goals were remarkable in unifying member states with a common set of goals 15 years ago. The Sustainable Development Goals show stronger intention, with wording like ‘eradicating poverty’, not ‘reducing poverty’ – it holds the world to greater account.”
The UN calls the Millennium Development Goals the “most successful anti-poverty push in history”. The boxes ticked included halving the incidence of extreme poverty; increasing the number of girls at school; and fewer child deaths since 2000.
For South Africa, Chulu says, realising the new goals will be about developing an “outward-looking” economy that explores new connections and opportunities to grow.
“South Africa has relied heavily on mining. It has also not built the right linkages with the rest of the continent. As chair of the G77, South Africa has a role to play to unify the group and set an agenda,” he says.
His targets for good development for the region over the next 15 years include innovation, technology, trans- formative economies, poverty alleviation and peace and security.
Dr Bjorn Lomborg, from Danish think tank the Copenhagen Consensus, was in South Africa in May, promoting a cost-benefit model to ensure “bang for your buck” by concentrating on the most effective targets first. Targets such as more free trade, tripling the number of preschools in sub-Saharan Africa, and halving the rate coral reef loss are top of his list.
Copenhagen Consensus data suggests the target list should be reduced from 169 to 19.
Doing this, Lomborg says, would quadruple the global aid budget without any extra spending.
“Going for the most effective targets first will do most good. Promising everything to everyone gives us no direction. Having 169 targets is like having none at all.”
But Dr Sally Perberdy, of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, says the number of goals and targets should not be a distraction. She says the 17 goals for 2030 essentially include the eight Millennium Development Goals goals in different forms and are more representative of people’s needs.
“The ground covered by the Sustainable Development Goals is important to the lives of people in low- and middle-income countries. The goals are mostly linked – the important part may be working out how to ensure, for instance, (that) achieving water and sanitation does not compromise the goal of conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources.”
Ultimately, the goals are a guide only, but their power lies in being a device with which governments may be held to account, Perberdy says.
“The success of the (goals) depends on how (they) align with a country’s own development and socio-political environment and pressures. What (they) give us is a yardstick to measure how well the government is delivering.”
Her key targets for South Africa are finding solutions to inequality, poverty and unemployment, securing sustainable water and energy supplies in the context of climate change, meeting the challenges of urbanisation and ensuring service delivery.
The world is a different place from 2000 when the millennium development goals were mapped out, but the pressures are as great as ever. This calls for the post-2015 development agenda to be more plan of action than a global wish list.