OWG Co-Chairs reflect on sustainable development

As reported in the IISD Sustainable Development Policy and Practice, the Co-Chairs of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflected on the OWG's work and its proposed goals and targets at an event hosted by the Women's International Forum, which was sponsored by the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General.

Csaba Kőrösi, Permanent Representative of Hungary, and Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya, spoke of the possibility of a more sustainable future under the theme 'Humanity at a Crossroad: How to Shape a New Sustainable Development Trajectory.'

Kőrösi explained, the 17 proposed goals and 169 proposed targets of the OWG are an evidence-based set of goals and a political compromise about how to lead the world toward greater sustainability. All of the goals are interlinked and encompass the three dimensions of sustainable development, and serve as a joint commitment to change global trends. He looked forward to the year ahead of continued negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda and the eventual implementation of the SDGs, calling for "the political will to do it, the capacity to do it right, and the resources to do it right now."

Kamau emphasized three words he saw as crucial to understanding the proposed SDGs: ambitious, transformative, and universal. He stressed the need for transformative goals that improve the entire social, economic, and political realities of life, and universal goals that hold everyone accountable for achieving them and implementing sustainable development. As he said, "We are all equally responsible for transforming our world together."

Kamau said that the next phase of negotiations taking place between January and September 2015 will seek to design a way of implementing these goals. He admitted that this will be difficult. He was convinced, however, that the SDGs will "gain in value in people's imaginations" as time passes, and that collective effort will allow the world to succeed on our goals. In response to a question he also said that he is frustrated by the debate on the number of goals, and said we need to focus on the one overarching goal: a more sustainable world. Kőrösi emphasized that the entire agenda must be about the next generation, while Kamau insisted that young people must be front and center.

For full report see http://sd.iisd.org/news/owg-co-chairs-reflect-on-sustainable-development