My comments at the Connect Aid World Summit of Social Media Influencers for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Felix Dodds: You have participated in the conceptualization of the SDGs, could you please explain to us how the SDGs came about and in what way are they different from the MDGs? I was attending the informal for Rio+20 in July 2011 on institutional framework for sustainable development in Solo Indonesia when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were proposed by Paula Caballero who was then Director of Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombia. It was Colombia who played the critical leadership role initially supported by Guatemala and Peru. The SDGs from the beginning differed from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in several critical ways: they were for ALL countries and not just developed countries and they covered the three pillars of sustainable development economy, environment and development. Another difference was that the MDGs were not negotiated and were originally opposed by NGOs and othe...