Podcast 1 on How the Sustainable Development Goals came about
What are the Sustainable Development Goals?
The Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) are a universal set of 17 goals and 169 targets, with accompanying indicators, that were agreed upon by UN member states to frame their policy agendas for the 15-year period from 2015 to 2030. Written by three
authors who have been engaged in the development of the SDGs from the
beginning, this book offers an insider view of the process and a unique entry
into what will be seen as one of the most significant negotiations and global
policy agendas of the twenty-first century.
What does the book address?
The book reviews how the
SDGs were developed, what happened in key meetings and how this
transformational agenda, which took more than three years to negotiate, came
together in September 2015. It dissects and analyzes the meetings,
organizations and individuals that played key roles in their development. It
provides fascinating insights into the subtleties and challenges of high-level
negotiation processes of governments and stakeholders, and into how the SDGs
were debated, formulated and agreed. It is essential reading for all interested
in the UN, sustainable development and the future of the planet and humankind.
What is in this Episode?
This is Episode 1 of our new
series based on Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals: Atransformational agenda for an insecure world by Felix Dodds, Ambassador David
Donoghue, and Jimena Leiva Roesch.
Over five episodes, we trace
the political negotiations and institutional shifts that led to the creation of
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this opening episode, we
explore the conceptual breakthrough that made the SDGs possible. How did
momentum build after Rio+20 to define a universal agenda? And what made this
moment different from earlier global development frameworks?
Episode 1: A New Beginning: Conceiving the Sustainable Development Goals
What did people say about the book?
"Learning from the
process that engaged so many stakeholders at national and international level
is important for future multilateral negotiations. This contribution from three
actors intimately involved in the process offers rare insights into a long,
challenging and ultimately fruitful process. I hope many readers will enjoy the
insights presented in this book and be inspired to realise that the impossible
is possible through compromise, partnership and leadership."
– from the foreword by Mary
Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation: Climate Justice, Former
President of Ireland (1990–1997) and Former UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights (1997–2002)
"This is an important
book that charts the journey we went on and the challenges faced in agreeing
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. I hope it will help people
understand what was achieved and help those now, and in the future, engaged in
the implementation of this agenda."
– from the foreword by Ambassador
Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations in New
York, USA, co-chair of the negotiations for the Sustainable Development Goals
(2012–2014) and co-facilitator of Transforming Our World: the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development (2014–2015)
"Having participated in
various negotiations on sustainable development since 1992, this overview of
the process leading to the ambitious and important Sustainable Development
Goals allows us to see the big picture and helps make the journey ahead possible."
– Julia
Marton-Lefevre, former Director General of IUCN, the International Union for
Conservation of Nature
"As the most prolific
writer on issues of sustainable development and the multilateral system, Felix
Dodds has done it again; on this occasion, working with Ambassador David
Donoghue and Jimena Lieva Roesch. These three authors have brought their individual
and collective knowledge and expertise to review the 2030 development agenda,
consolidated in a recently articulated set of Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). Offered by people who were immersed in the process, theirs is a
necessary and timely analysis of how the multilateral system works, the
consultations and negotiations out of which the SDGs evolved and their intended
objectives.
Given their backgrounds and
proximity to what took place, the authors have brought to their subject the
quality of information and analysis likely to be useful to those who will be
engaged in fulfilling this agenda within the multilateral system and its myriad
stakeholders. When compared with the MDGs, the very large number of sustainable
development goals and targets suggest very high ambition and an enormous
undertaking at both the national and international levels. For students of
development and international relations this will be an essential book. It will
become a useful tool for peer review of the attainment of the SDGs. Coming so
soon after consensus on the SDGs and the new development agenda were reached,
the authors engage in an important discussion on which future books on this
area will draw and be assessed.
All three authors are to be
congratulated for this important piece of work."
– Liz Thompson,
former UN Assistant Secretary General for Rio+20 and Barbados Minister of
Energy and Environment
"Experienced
journalists covering UN negotiating meetings on sustainable development issues
tend to make a bee-line for Felix Dodds to discover what is going on. Now he,
and his equally well-informed co-authors – Ambassador David Donoghue and Jimena
Leiva Roesch – are doing everyone a service by extending the privilege through
this book, which traces the often tortuous process that led to the agreement
last September of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Though AS OF YET
little-known outside the international environment and development community,
the Goals are – as the authors write – ‘a blueprint for the development of
humanity and the planet in the 21st century’. Their adoption marks the moment
when a decades-old argument was finally won.
This book charts how that
happened and suggests how the victory should be followed up with action. "
– Geoffrey Lean,
award-winning environmental journalist
"Negotiating the
Sustainable Development Goals is an important and timely contribution
to global development policymaking that will further our understanding of how
the SDGs became the new overarching framework for a comprehensive development
agenda – and help inspire and guide their implementation."
– Mark Suzman,
President of Global Policy and Advocacy and Chief Strategy Officer, Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation
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