News Story Date:
6 June 2013: The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has issued its report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. ‘The Action Agenda for Sustainable Development’ argues that a sustainable development path must be based on four related normative concepts: the right to development for every country; human rights and social inclusion; convergence of living standards across countries; and shared responsibilities and opportunities.
The report is aimed at supporting global efforts to achieve sustainable development during the period 2015-2030. To this end, it identifies ten 'priority challenges,' which it says are interconnected and each contribute to four dimensions of sustainable development: economic development (including the end of extreme poverty), social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and good governance including peace and security.
The ten priority challenges are: end extreme poverty including hunger; achieve development within planetary boundaries; ensure effective learning for all children and youth for life and livelihood; achieve gender equality, social inclusion and human rights for all; achieve health and wellbeing at all ages; improve agriculture systems and raise rural prosperity; empower inclusive, productive and resilient cities; curb human-induced climate change and ensure sustainable energy; secure ecosystem services and biodiversity, and ensure good management of water and other natural resources; and transform governance for sustainable development.
It highlights that certain issues, such as gender equality and human rights, require social mobilization and political leadership, so are treated as cross-cutting while also warranting a dedicated goal.
An annex to the report provides targets for each goal, generally aimed at the year 2030. Some targets are marked as needing to be specified at country or sub-national level. Indicators for each target should be developed at a later stage, the annex notes. The report also includes a 29-part section of questions and answers, and an explanation of how input from the public was incorporated following a two-week consultation period in May.