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Getting to 2030: Negotiating the Post‐2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
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2016
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Development Studies (Infrastructure Engineering)EngineeringSustainable DevelopmentSustainable FutureSocial SciencesEnvironmental PolicyDevelopment Studies (Film Studies)High BarSustainable Development GoalsRio+20 ConferencePublic PolicyEconomic OutcomesUn Sustainable Development GoalSustainable Development GoalSustainable SystemsEquitable DevelopmentSustainabilityGlobal SustainabilityInternational Institutions
At Rio+20, UN Member States set a high bar by agreeing on a transformative post‑2015 sustainable development agenda of broad ambition to enhance global coordination on human and planetary well‑being. This article reviews the two negotiating tracks that produced the post‑2015 agenda—the Open Working Group on SDGs and the replacement of the Millennium Development Goals—and frames a closer examination of their outcomes and implementation challenges. The authors analyze the original intent of the agenda by comparing the negotiations of the SDGs and the post‑2015 development agenda, highlighting their similarities and differences. The resulting agreement represents a fine balance among competing interests and concerns.
The United Nations Member States set a very high bar for themselves at the Rio+20 conference in June 2012: reaching agreement among 193 countries on a broad ‘post‐2015’ sustainable development agenda that could enhance international coordination on all aspects of human and planetary well‐being. However, at a point in history when States were increasingly failing to reach consensus on key decisions, they made history by agreeing on a course that could ‘transform our world’, through ‘an agenda of breathtaking ambition and scope’. This article reviews the two negotiating tracks to develop the post‐2015 outcome – the work of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals ( SDG s), which originated out of the decision taken at Rio+20; and the agreement to launch a post‐2015 development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals. The final outcome from these two processes represents a fine balance among competing interests and concerns. The article sets the stage for a closer examination of the results of these negotiations. We begin our examination of the ‘original intent’ of the post‐2015 agenda by reviewing the negotiation of the SDG s and the post‐2015 development agenda, with attention to their similarities and differences. The article concludes with a focus on challenges for the implementation stage, based on the themes that emerged during the negotiations.