What are the Sustainable Development Goals?
A Global Development Policy
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an international set of goals, targets and indicators agreed upon by the United Nations (UN). In September 2015 the UN agreed on the final version and all UN member states will be expected to use the SDGs to frame their political agendas and policies in the coming 15 years. This is why the SDGs are an important global core development policy.
The SDGs following the first generation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were in place from 2000 to 2015. The new SDGs are aiming to expand and substantiate the goals and targets, to make them more concrete, achievable and sustainable.
Why do we need the SDGs?
The MDGs were a first important step and focal point for governments to orient their policies and overseas aid programmes to end poverty and improve the lives of poor people. In this role they have also become a powerful tool for aid givers, NGOs and the people to hold the governments to account. But the MDGs have been criticised for being too narrow and leaving out many people and their needs, like mental health. The SDGs are aiming to be more inclusive and sustainable, and, as the UN secretary demanded in December 2014, to "leave no one behind". Mental health is part of the SDGs in Health goal 3.
The UN SDG Process
The SDG process was initiated in 2012 at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro. The UN General Assembly's Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) was created and commissioned to make a draft set of goals. In July 2014, the OWG presented a proposal of the SDGs to the UN General Assembly. The SDG draft contains 17 goals and 169 targets covering a wide range of development issues, ranging from ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting the environement. Early in December 2014, the UN Secretary-General submitted his Synthesis Report to the General Assembly and the UN agreed that the OWG draft would be the basis for the post-2015 SDG process.
The UN member states adopted the final SDG goals and targets in September 2015 at the UN General Assembly in New York. The SDGs came into force in January 2016 and will guide international development policies until 2030.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an international set of goals, targets and indicators agreed upon by the United Nations (UN). In September 2015 the UN agreed on the final version and all UN member states will be expected to use the SDGs to frame their political agendas and policies in the coming 15 years. This is why the SDGs are an important global core development policy.
The SDGs following the first generation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were in place from 2000 to 2015. The new SDGs are aiming to expand and substantiate the goals and targets, to make them more concrete, achievable and sustainable.
Why do we need the SDGs?
The MDGs were a first important step and focal point for governments to orient their policies and overseas aid programmes to end poverty and improve the lives of poor people. In this role they have also become a powerful tool for aid givers, NGOs and the people to hold the governments to account. But the MDGs have been criticised for being too narrow and leaving out many people and their needs, like mental health. The SDGs are aiming to be more inclusive and sustainable, and, as the UN secretary demanded in December 2014, to "leave no one behind". Mental health is part of the SDGs in Health goal 3.
The UN SDG Process
The SDG process was initiated in 2012 at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro. The UN General Assembly's Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) was created and commissioned to make a draft set of goals. In July 2014, the OWG presented a proposal of the SDGs to the UN General Assembly. The SDG draft contains 17 goals and 169 targets covering a wide range of development issues, ranging from ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting the environement. Early in December 2014, the UN Secretary-General submitted his Synthesis Report to the General Assembly and the UN agreed that the OWG draft would be the basis for the post-2015 SDG process.
The UN member states adopted the final SDG goals and targets in September 2015 at the UN General Assembly in New York. The SDGs came into force in January 2016 and will guide international development policies until 2030.
'You cannot have health without mental health and you cannot have progress without accountability.
That's why we must include mental health indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals.' - Patrick J. Kennedy
How we were building momentum for mental health
in the SDGs
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UN Secretary-General's Synthesis Report on the SDGs (4 Dec 2014):
The UN Secretary General has released the UN SDGs Synthesis report: The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet. The Synthesis Report contains a clear statement of including mental illness in the SDGs. This report will be basis for all negotiations of the future Post-2015 agenda. The UN member states will now negotiate the details of the SDGs. Read the full report. Watch the UN General Assembly (Informal meeting): Briefing by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on his synthesis report on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. |
Kofi Annan on 25 November 2014:
"First, as the world is thinking about a development framework to build on the Millennium Development Goals, we need to place mental health in general and depression in particular within the post-2015 agenda. (...) There is no doubt that depression must become a global priority because it not only affects health and well-being but also diminishes labour productivity and economic growth. (...) We now need to find the will and resources to use this knowledge to transform the lives of hundreds of millions of people." Kofi Annan, at the Economist Group's Global Crisis of Depression Conference, London, 25 November 2014 Read the full speech here. |
Report at the UK Parliament on 26.11.14:
On 26 November the major report 'Mental Health for Sustainable Development' was launched in the UK Parliament of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Global Health and Mental Health. The report contains only 4 recommendations - one of which is the target for the Sustainable Development Goals, as proposed by FundaMentalSDG. So we are clearly building momentum! |