United Nations Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon (R) addresses a press conference on the Outcome Document of the Post-2015 Development Agenda at the UN headquarters in New York, Aug. 3, 2015. (Photo: Xinhua/Li Muzi)
UN Secretary-general Ban Ki- moon on Monday hailed a "bold, ambitious and transformative sustainable development agenda for the next 15 years" hammered out among all 193 UN members and civil society to replace the retiring 15-year-old Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"The agreement is the product of more than three years of effort that began with the Rio+20 Summit Conference in 2012, the work of my High Level Panel of Eminent Persons, the UN System and ultimately became the most inclusive and transparent negotiation process in UN history," he said. "It was an innovative and epic process," the secretary-general said at a press conference here.
"The outcome document is called 'Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development' and it is a roadmap to ending global poverty, building a life of dignity for all and ... is also a clarion call to intensify efforts to heal our planet for the benefit of this and future generations" leaving no one," Ban said.
He added one of the keys to success of the goals is that the outcome document includes the business community.
The accord, also known as the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs), is an ambitious agenda featuring 17 new sustainable development goals -- to replace the eight MDGs -- that aim to end poverty, promote prosperity and people's well-being, all while protecting the environment.
The SDGs are expected to be adopted by world leaders in September to replace MDGs, a set of eight anti-poverty targets to be reached by the end of this year.
The secretary-general singled out for particular praise the co- facilitators, ambassadors David Donoghue of Ireland and Macharia Kamau of Kenya, UN Undersecretary-General Wu Hongbo of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and Amin Mohammed, his special adviser for post-2015 development.
He also thanked member states, "who worked to reach consensus on a sweeping agreement," President Sam Kutesa of the UN General Assembly "and so many others from civil society, the private sector, academia, parliamentarians and millions of people in every corner of the world who shared their vision of the world we want."
"This is truly a 'We the Peoples' Agenda," he told a meeting of reporters with principals in the negotiations, quoting the opening line of the UN Charter.
Leaders from more than 150 nations, including Pope Francis who recently published his encyclical on the environment, are expected to attend the Sustainable Development Summit Sept. 25-27, here at UN Headquarters in New York to formally adopt this outcome document setting a sustainable agenda.
"We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet," reads the preamble of the 29-page outcome document. "We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind."
Co-facilitator Donoghue said, "Trying to guide the process towards a written agreement with the multiple adjustments, compromises needed in any such negotiations, that was a challenge but is one to which all member states rose with great honor and great skill."
"There has been nothing like it," he said. "The emphasis must be on getting these goals and targets actually implemented so that this doesn't remain as a nice picture on the wall but this is actually something which would really change lives and show benefits."
Asked about the marathon negotiations extending over the weekend -- the accord was finalized only late Sunday -- Donoghue said the last of the talks involved "about half a dozen challenging issues."
They included, he said, common but differing responsibilities, wording of the preamble and a number of issues "relating to the formulation of particular sensitive references, be it in the human rights area, be it in the political area." He said he would not elaborate.
His partner in facilitating, Kamau, added, "Saturday morning we were able to get the breakthrough and get everybody on the same page" on what the outstanding issues were "and focus on how we will show order," calling it a political, intellectual and technical process.
"So, to get all those pieces in place was really the big challenge," Kamau said. "The challenge was to see how we were going to balance all of this in the context of a global agenda that is universal that represents all cultures, all peoples and all other dimensions of social order in the world. So it was that was really the big challenge, putting the puzzle together."
Asked about how much the goals might cost, he said, "these are goals for the entire world. They are universal. The MDGs were targeted at developing countries, particularly the poorest."
Estimates have been hear ranging from hundreds of billions to trillions of U.S. dollars.
Wu echoed Kamau's estimate, saying that "The amount of money would be tremendous."
The DESA chief said, "to give you a very specific figure would be very difficult."
"It depends on many issues, for instance if the money is used effectively or not," he said. "So this is one of the factors there are many more."
"What the member states are determined to do, according to the outcome document, is that they are going to mobilize all the financial resources possible, public and private, international and domestic and the mixed financing resources," Wu said.
He added that the MDGs were produced "by a group of experts behind closed doors" while, this time, you have 193 states on board. They are coming here with their national priorities, so to compromise and make a proper balance of all their priorities is really a great challenge. So I would say the 17 goals with 169 targets are really the best we can have. According to the discussions ... and the outcome document, these goals and targets are doable. We are confident about that."
