Ending poverty
Some charities, think-tanks and politicians have argued that the goals must focus on ending absolutely poverty *above all else*.
Final
report of the High Level Panel:
"We must keep faith with the original promise of the MDGs, and now finish the job. After 2015 we should move from reducing to ending extreme poverty, in all its forms...
"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."
Brendan Cox, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children:
"In our view the framework can do lots of things, advance debates, encourage a normative shift, start to redefine development – but at its core must be abolishing absolute poverty in all its forms. That’s both because we think ending absolute poverty and focussing on the world’s poorest people is the most important thing (not that others are unimportant) but also because we’re worried that without clear prioritisation the panel and the ultimate framework will flounder, be unable to prioritise and unable to get specific. Such a framework would remain at 30,000 feet and struggle to gain political purchase if it could even be agreed."
from this
blog post.