1. The Evolution of Sustainable
Development
Building on the MDG foundation
2. Sustainable Development started
in 1962
1962 : Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
1968 : Garret Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons
1972 : the Blueprint for Survival by the Ecologist magazine
1972 : the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth report
1972: The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in
Stockholm
1980: Precursor of Sustainable Development was introduced by the International
Union for the Conservation of Natural Resources (IUCN) : World Conservation
Strategy
1982: Culmination of SD "mankind is a part of nature and life depends on the
uninterrupted functioning of natural systems".
1983: The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) or the
Brundtland Commission was founded.
3. 1987: Sustainable Development was define in the document Our Common
Future as
"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
June 1992: the first UN Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) was held in Rio de Janeiro and adopted an agenda for environment
and development in the 21st Century. Agenda 21.
1993: UNCED instituted the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)
to follow-up on the implementation of Agenda 21.
2002: the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was convened
in Johannesburg to renew the global commitment to sustainable development.
2012: Rio+20, The Future We Want
The Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, which took place in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012 was the biggest UN conference ever and a
major step forward in achieving a sustainable future
5. MDG expire Dec 2015: varying
outcomes in different countries
6.
7.
8.
9. Anthropocene -
need of other goals
• The Anthropocene is a geological epoch
that begins when human activities started
to have a significant global impact on
Earth’s ecosystems
• Need for systematic goals and not silos
12. SDG build on the MDG foundation
• SDG’s are action oriented, global in nature and
universally applicable.
• SDG’s take into account different national realities,
capacities and levels of development and respect
national policies and priorities.
• SDG’s build on the foundation laid by the MDGs,
seek to complete the unfinished business of the
MDGs, and respond to new challenges.
16. Exercise:
• What SDG is most important to your
community? what SDG is most
important/relevant to your work?
• If you could invent your own SDG for your
community, what would it be?
• How would you measure success in your
community?
Editor's Notes
The MDGs are not the first time that global promises have been made about eradicating or rapidly reducing human deprivation. Antecedents can be found stretching back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘Four Freedoms’ speech of January 1941 and to the Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and its stipulation that ‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care...’ (UN Declaration of Human Rights Article 25). The 1960s were declared unanimously in the General Assembly to be the first UN Development Decade, sparking off a rash of target setting (Toye and Toye,
2005a and 2005b), but enthusiasm to set targets ran ahead of commitment to action
The 1980s saw the stalling of global summitry and goal-setting, and a dramatic change in the global intellectual environment. The UN’s influence waned, while that of the IMF and World Bank increased as they imposed structural adjustment policies on the increasing numbers of poor countries coming to them for loans
The next major meeting was the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the ‘Earth Summit’ or ‘Rio Summit’(1992). This was successful in mobilising public attention on environment and development but failed in its grander objective of reaching a global consensus on issues such as climate change and Deforestation The Rio Summit was one of the events at which the women’s movement began to hone its lobbying skills and greatly strengthen the impact it could have on UN conference declarations. Over the next few years the movement was an unofficial but major player at such gatherings and utilised mechanisms
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have produced the most successful anti-poverty movement in history and will serve as a springboard for the new sustainable development agenda to be adopted this year, according to the final MDG report launched today by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
MDG’s measures access, but quality is missing!
Planetary boundaries, earths buffer zones that maintain a livable life for humans on ears.
Targets are defined as aspirational global targets, with each government setting its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances. The goals and targets integrate economic, social and environmental aspects and recognize their interlinkages in achieving sustainable development in all its dimensions.
Within the goals are 169 targets, to put a bit of meat on the bones. Targets under goal one, for example, include reducing by at least half the number of people living in poverty by 2030, and eradicating extreme poverty (people living on less than $1.25 a day). Under goal five, there’s a target on eliminating violence against women, while goal 16 has a target to promote the rule of law and equal access to justice.
That’s the trillion-dollar question. Rough calculations from the intergovernmental committee of experts on sustainable development financing have put the cost of providing a social safety net to eradicate extreme poverty at about $66bn (£43bn) a year, while annual investments in improving infrastructure (water, agriculture, transport, power) could be up to a total of $7tn globally.
