WRI sustainable development goals

Sustainable Development Goals: From Rhetoric to Reality

by Kitty van der Heijden, Sonya Suter and Mathilde Bouyé - July 08, 2015

Kenyan farmers plant rust-resistant wheat. Photo by Petr Kosina / CIMMYT

In September, world leaders will descend on

New York to set goals for creating a more

sustainable world, free of extreme poverty

by 2030. The 17 proposed Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs) will replace the

earlier Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs), but unlike their predecessors, these

goals will be universal. They will apply to all

countries and can only be achieved if all countries act – not just

“developing” ones.

But this larger, more ambitious set of goals poses a challenge: How do we

make sure that all of those responsible follow through on September’s good

intentions? In a voluntary agenda, how do we inject accountability? As

the United Nations High Level Political Forum, the body that will review

progress on the agenda, wraps up its meetings this week, now is the

perfect time to ask these questions.

It may be tempting to write off accountability as impossible without a

legally binding agreement. While true that the SDGs by themselves will not

have the force of law, it is still possible to clearly assign responsibility,

making sure all governments, businesses and other stakeholders have clear

objectives and performance standards, as well as answerability, ensuring

all actors inform and justify their actions to those affected. Setting out what

governments and other stakeholders are responsible for and requiring that

they answer for their actions publicly is critical. These are important

elements of an accountability framework. All stakeholders should develop

clear plans for what they will do to achieve the SDGs, and enable their own

citizens to track their progress.

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At the same time, no country, rich or poor, will be able to reach the goals in

isolation. We live in a globalized economy facing global-scale environmental

challenges. Domestic policies in the areas of trade, agriculture, energy,

infrastructure, climate change and economic growth (to name just a few)

can impact sustainability, poverty and growth elsewhere, both for better or

worse. Countries will need to identify these spillovers and externalities and

work together to address them, particularly for global public goods like

climate change, or freshwater scarcity. Only by the combination of its own

and other countries’ actions will any one country fully achieve the SDGs.

At the same time, national governments are no longer the only players.

Citiesgenerate 80 percent of global GDP and 70 percent of carbon

emissions , putting them at the heart of the action for sustainable

development. Similarly, the long reach of global supply chains give the

private sector huge potential to lead or lag on environmental sustainability

and labor conditions across the globe. And civil society is a vital component

of the social pact between governments and citizens – and often uniquely

able to evaluate a government’s progress. All three—cities or local

governments, the private sector and civil society—will have a role in

making progress on SDGs through their own actions, by forming

multistakeholder partnerships, and in pushing national governments and

each other to lead. And of course, in holding them to account for their

commitments.

The word “accountability” has long been a taboo in the SDG negotiations,

but we know that making strides against the twin challenges of poverty and

environmental degradation will be nearly impossible without ways to not

only measure progress, but also delineate clear responsibility for making

progress. Speaking in 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon explained

the lack of improvement against the MDGs as: “… not because the goals are

unreachable, or because time is too short. We are off course because of

unmet commitments, inadequate resources and a lack of focus and

accountability.”

This September, we will set a transformational global agenda that will no

doubt inspire and motivate. But the warm glow will not be enough to carry

us through to 2030. The SDGs must be supported by a web of partnerships

that spell out who does what, and that can be transparently monitored and


assessed. As countries finalize the SDGs over the coming weeks and

months, they must not shy away from making accountability a reality.


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WRI sustainable development goals