2015 is a big year for thrashing out a new set of global development targets. Here’s the road ahead.
This year, a new set of global development targets – the Sustainable Development Goals – are being finalised. They constitute a new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next 15 years.
They are important for Corporate Affairs Directors for two reasons: firstly, business will be expected to play a big role in helping to deliver them and, secondly, the goals will frame the external affairs environment in which all global companies operate.
The process to determine the goals is complicated. We have outlined below the key events from April 2015 to the conclusion at the UN Summit in September. The intergovernmental negotiations, involving all member states, began in January. They form the core of the process that will agree both the goals and the means by which they will be implemented, monitored and reviewed. Their starting point is the 17 goals and 169 targets proposed by the UN Open Working Group in July 2014. The Financing for Development discussions are a separate track but will have significant implications for discussions around the goals as they will cover crucial issues that will affect their implementation.
Click through the panels below to learn more about the key meetings and negotiations taking place in the run-up to the UN Summit in September 2015. Our timeline kicks off with a quick recap of the first key events of the year.
Allan Kamau is the head of Portland’s Nairobi office. He is the former Africa editor of CCTV Africa.