SDG Stakeholders Goals and Objectives

The UN General Assembly’s Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was mandated by Member States at Rio+20 to propose a set of SDGs by September 2014.

SDGs focus areas: Stakeholder proposals for goals and targets

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By Jack Cornforth, Juliette Becuwe and Umberto Sconfienza, Stakeholder Forum

Introduction

The UN General Assembly’s Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was mandated by Member States at Rio+20 to propose a set of SDGs by September 2014. Ahead of the OWG’s ninth session in early March, the Co-Chairs produced a guiding document with 19 focus areas summarising the issues for consideration in its ongoing consensus building work. In the tenth session (31 March – 4 April 2014) it is anticipated that Member States will start to engage in more structured discussion around goals and targets based on the 19 identified focus areas.

In order to inform the discussions at this meeting, Stakeholder Forum has, for each of the 19 focus areas, compiled a number of goals and corresponding targets from stakeholder proposals housed within the SDGs e-Inventory - an interactive online tool which enables stakeholders to outline their visions for new post-2015 global goals and search existing proposals.

The SDGs e-Inventory contains a diverse range of proposals from a wide variety of stakeholders across all global regions. This report aims to provide a snapshot of stakeholder proposals on the 19 focus areas and provide a selection of example goals and targets that can feed into initial discussions on these concrete elements. It is hoped that this synthesis will be a useful resource for OWG members and other stakeholders involved in the process of designing goals and targets for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Methodology

Using SDGs e-Inventory search function, relevant proposals were identified for each of the OWG’s 19 focus areas. As a large number of proposals were retrieved for each focus area, the next step was to refine the selection of goals and targets to provide a concise and representative snapshot. This process of refinement was done with a view to feature a range of sub-themes, as well provide a sample representative of the diverse geographical locations and stakeholder groups that the proposals come from.
Given that the goals and targets put forward in the reports of the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on Post-2015, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and UN Global Compact (sometimes referred to as official process inputs) are already well known to the OWG, they have not been included in this synthesis.

The selected goals and corresponding targets are presented in a table for each focus area. These have been grouped (as far as possible) according sub-themes [1], with a view to facilitate comparison of different goals and targets proposed on similar issues.

For the purposes of this exercise, goals and affiliated targets have been kept together to maintain continuity with how they have been presented in their corresponding proposal, rather than splitting the targets up across multiple focus areas. To maximise the number of proposals included in the document, each goal and target only appears once and has been placed under what we consider to be the focus area which best aligns with the targets.

Interlinkages

The Rio+20 Outcome Document and the OWG discussions so far have emphasised the importance of the SDGs being integrated. This involves acknowledging and capitalising on the interlinkages between different sectors and the three dimensions of sustainable development. This integration will be key to the success of the SDGs, but also presents a significant challenge in the design of the framework. To facilitate thinking on integration early on, the OWG has produced an annex to its focus areas document highlighting the possible interlinkages between the different areas.

To contribute to the consideration of interlinkages and integration, throughout this document an effort has been made to highlight the interlinkages between each individual target and other focus areas. It is hoped that this information can be used to help mainstream specific issues across other relevant focus areas. To do this we have assigned each focus area an icon. These can be seen in the table below.

Click on the icons below to read a summary of the targets and indicators related to each of the 19 focus areas:

1. Poverty eradication
11. Employment and decent work for all