Post 2015 MDGs: Our Time Starts Now!

Last Friday 31 May was a momentous date. For on that date, in New York, the 27-strong High Level Panel appointed by the UN Secretary General – and co-chaired by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron; Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; and Indonesian President Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presented its final report on the post-2015 development agenda to the Secretary-General and the United Nations General Assembly. This report takes up where the MDGs left off, buts sets out an ambitious goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2035. As the report sets out, the MDGs were a major success: the last 13 years have seen the fastest reduction in poverty in human history with half a billion fewer people now living below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. Child death rates have fallen by more than 30% (about three million children’s lives saved each year compared to 2000).

The Report builds on the success of the MDGs, recognising the important role played by economic growth, better policies, and the global commitment to the MDGs and puts improved governance at the heart of development, picking up what our Prime Minister calls the golden thread of peace, good governance and open societies and economies. The report is all about “finishing the job that the MDGs started”.

I thought it would be worth setting out here the 5 transformational shifts called for by the Panel:

1. Leave no one behind. After 2015 we should move from reducing to ending extreme poverty, in all forms. No-one– regardless of ethnicity, gender, geography, disability, race or other status should be denied universal human rights and basic economic opportunities. There should be a particular focus on excluded groups, and on social protection to help people build resilience against unexpected shocks.

2. Sustainable development at the core. The need to integrate the social, economic, and environmental implications of sustainability to eradicate poverty and meet the aspirations of the estimated eight billion people in 2030 was immediate, including to slow the pace of climate change and environmental degradation. Structural change, with new solutions was needed to bring about social inclusion. Developed countries have a special role to play, fostering new technologies and making faster progress in reducing unsustainable consumption.

3. Transformed economies. A need for global economic transformation to end extreme poverty and improve livelihoods, with a rapid shift to sustainable patterns of consumption and production-driven innovation, technology, with private business creating more value and driving sustainable and inclusive growth. Diversified economies, with equal opportunities for all, creating jobs and livelihoods, especially for young people and women, and ensuring everyone has what they need to grow and prosper, including access to quality education and skills, healthcare, clean water, electricity, telecomms and transport. Making it easier for people to invest, start-up businesses and trade. More work on taking advantage of urbanisation, recognising that cities are the world’s engines for business and innovation.

4. Peace and effective, open and accountable institutions. Freedom from fear, conflict and violence is the most fundamental human right, and essential for building peaceful and prosperous societies. People have a right to expect their governments to be honest, accountable, and responsive to their needs. Peace and good governance are core elements of wellbeing, not optional extras. Responsive and legitimate institutions should encourage the rule of law, property rights, freedom of speech and the media, open political choice, access to justice, and accountable government and public institutions. The report calls for a transparency revolution, so citizens can see exactly where and how taxes, aid and revenues from extractive industries are spent.

5. A new global partnership. Perhaps the most important transformative shift is towards a new spirit of solidarity, cooperation, and mutual accountability to underpin the post-2015 agenda. A new partnership based on a common understanding of our shared humanity, underpinning mutual respect and mutual benefit in a shrinking world. This partnership should not just be about governments but also people living in poverty, those with disabilities, women, civil society and indigenous and local communities, traditionally marginalised groups, multilateral institutions, local and national government, the business community, academia and private philanthropy. Each priority area identified in the post-2015 agenda should be supported by dynamic partnerships. The international community needed to go beyond an aid agenda and put its own house in order: to implement a swift reduction in corruption, illicit financial flows, money-laundering, tax evasion, and hidden ownership of assets. The world needed to fight climate change, champion free and fair trade, technology innovation, transfer and diffusion, and promote financial stability. And since this partnership is built on principles of common humanity and mutual respect, it must also have a new spirit and be completely transparent. Everyone involved must be fully accountable.

I would encourage you all to read the full report at http://www.un.org/sg/management/pdf/HLP_P2015_Report.pdf.

And one final quote from the report: “We can be the first generation in human history to end hunger and ensure that every person achieves a basic standard of wellbeing. There can be no excuses. This is a universal agenda, for which everyone must accept their proper share of responsibility”.

Our time starts now.