View previous stories
	Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by United Nations News   On September 25th 2015, all countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. The 17 goals and 169 targets aim at tackling key systemic barriers to sustainable development.   On 1 January 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 — officially came into force.   Over the next fifteen years, with these new Goals that universally apply to all, countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.   The new Goals are unique in that they call for action by all countries, poor, rich and middle-income to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They addresses a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.   Sustainable Development Goals   Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere   Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture   Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages   Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all   Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls   Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all   Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all   Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all   Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation   Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries   Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable   Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns   Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts   Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development   Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss   Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels   Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development   Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere   1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day   1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions   1.3 Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable   1.4 By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance   1.5 By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters   1.a Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions   1.b Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions   Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture   2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round   2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons   2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment   2.4 By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality   2.5 By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed   2.a Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries   2.b Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round   2.c Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility   Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages   3.1 By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births   3.2 By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births   3.3 By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases   3.4 By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being   3.5 Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol   3.6 By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents   3.7 By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes   3.8 Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all   3.9 By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination   3.a Strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate   3.b Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and non-communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all   3.c Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States   3.d Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks   Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all   4.1 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes   4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education   4.3 By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university   4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship   4.5 By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations   4.6 By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy   4.7 By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development   4.a Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all   4.b By 2020, substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries   4.c By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States   Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls   5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere   5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation   5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation   5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate   5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life   5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences   5.a Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws   5.b Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women   5.c Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels   * Access the links for more.   http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld Visit the related web page
	Putting the spotlight on ‘participation’ in economic alternatives by Jodie Thorpe Eldis, Institute of Development Studies   Next week, many business leaders will once again meet at Davos in Switzerland, for the 49th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The forum speaks of the world being in a “moment of transition”, and sets up a number of dialogues on “Globalization 4.0”, that will inform a set of “system initiatives” designed to “curate, align and advance the efforts of the most globally relevant and knowledgeable individuals and institutions that are shaping the future”.   Often part of the Davos meetings are a number of principles, including cooperation, multi-stakeholder dialogue and responsiveness to regional and national concerns. However, two others sit rather uncomfortably with me. One is a cult of leadership, and the other is a primacy of growth (even if it is inclusive and sustainable growth) above all else.   At Davos, and in society in general, recent decades have seen value placed on too few individuals (generally men); creating or reinforcing a sense of their infallibility and entitlement. Decision-making takes place behind closed doors, in processes that marginalise the interests and views of ‘ordinary’ people and fail to reflect the value that they create. Economic growth is prioritised above all else, while the wellbeing of the society within which the economy functions is undervalued.   Over the past year, however, we have been collecting examples that challenge such norms. Linking Economic Advancement in Participation is a really exciting project developed by IDS in collaboration with the Economic Advancement Programme of the Open Society Foundations. It explores economic structures, processes and models that involve so-called ordinary people in economic decision-making, and how these can be enabled.   Through this work we have created a global map that spotlights 44 different cases (so far) of participation in economic advancement, stretching from San Francisco to the Solomon Islands. We have grouped them into the three categories, as we set out in our guide on Mapping Participation in Economic Advancement.   The first group focuses on economic processes involving enterprises (large, small or micro), funders, investors – organisations which control capital and make decisions involving the allocation of capital. These also involve economic processes happening at the intersection of enterprises – at a sector, value chain or market level.   In these processes, decision-making related to enterprise management and economic production (for example, how capital and other resources are deployed, how production is organised, how marketing is organised) is typically centralised. However, these alternative models foster participation by: Enabling community members to hold enterprises to account; Supporting employees, community members, etc affected by economic processes to participate in decision-making, including through democratising ownership of enterprises.   In these examples, the underlying aim is generally to ensure that the benefits created by economic processes are more justly shared. In some cases, the focus is entirely on economic benefits (profits), while in others, profits may be balanced with social, environmental and wellbeing benefits.   Citizen voice in economic policy-making   The second group focuses on macroeconomic policy-making on issues such as debt, tax and interest rates, as well as the policies pertaining to resource ownership, economic production or market governance. The focus is often national, but may also be global or local.   Traditionally, economic policy-making is limited to a small group of technocratic experts, influenced by powerful stakeholders from business or civil society. It often fails to involve or reflect the interests of affected citizens. Even where democratic processes create the framework for participation, the legal, technical, and/or opaque nature of these processes is often exclusionary or may be used to exclude.   In these examples, participation is fostered either through advocacy on the part of excluded groups, and/or through recognition of their legitimacy by decision-makers that include them in policy processes. Having spaces for deliberation where traditionally excluded groups are able to co-produce policy messages can also be important.   In these examples, the underlying aim of participation may be to secure accountability from those in charge of economic processes, to support better and more informed policy-making, to ensure the concerns and aspirations of ordinary people are taken into account, and to protect economic rights.   Participatory economic alternatives (structures, processes and ownership)   In contrast to the previous two groups, this category involves models that prioritise solidarity and participation (e.g. examples from the social and solidarity economy movement). They tend to be based on self-organising and cooperative forms of ownership or management that are claimed or created by the members themselves, although they may involve external support and facilitation.   Democratic, horizontal and decentralised decision-making (often direct, though it may be delegated) are the norm. Even the rules and structures for decision-making are open and under democratic control. The underlying aim is community welfare, shared benefits and building the local economy, often supported through strengthening local wealth circulation.   There is a strong emphasis on solidarity, group self-reliance and collective action, in contrast to the competition, individual self-reliance or individualised action that is emphasised in much modern economic activity.   By collecting these examples, we are building a stronger knowledge and evidence base, focused specifically on the theme of participation in alternative economic models, and how meaningful participation can be achieved in practice.   Over the years a great deal of work has been done on how to build participation and increase the voice of disenfranchised groups in political and social processes. Here we are interested in how these concepts and practices of participation apply to the economic sphere.   We know that many other organisations are actively working on these issues, and we’d like to hear from you.   What constitutes meaningful participation and under what conditions is it most likely to emerge? What are success factors or barriers to participation in economic processes? What are the best examples which illustrate how participate can work in practice?   Share your thoughts, examples and learning by emailing us on eldis@ids.ac.uk. Where comments include relevant resources or examples of participation in the economic sphere, we will add them as links in the Eldis Key Issue Guide, or as cases on our map.   http://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/putting-the-spotlight-on-participation-in-economic-alternatives/ http://www.eldis.org/keyissues/mapping-participation-economic-advancement Visit the related web page
	View more stories