The world is an unfair, unequal, insecure and unhealthy place for about half its population. Around 30% of ‘us’ have no access to adequate healthcare when needed, and 40% face a complete or near-complete loss of income security when a personal or a national economic crisis strikes. At least a third of the global population live in abject poverty (under US$3.10 per day) – i.e., the cruellest form of insecurity. Every second child is poor and 5-10 million children die every year of preventable cau...

A country’s ability to close the fiscal gap is based on its tax revenue, and there are three clear reasons for this. First, since the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda, implementation is mainly the responsibility of the countries themselves, not NGOs or the private sector....

On the education front, the MDGs were no paradigm-shifters -- but from a policy perspective their sheer scope did help drive the global development agenda for education. Some 15 years after the Millennium Declaration, how much progress has there been across the development indicators for education? The results are inconclusive....

Health is one of the core elements in human capital development and is explicitly presented under Goal 3, which aims to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. This goal is far more inclusive than its predecessor and seeks to put the issue high up on the 2030 Agenda....

Eradicating poverty has been a global priority since the founding of the United Nations. Thanks to international efforts, the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world has fallen by more than half over the last three decades: 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015, according to the MDG Report of 2015. Yet despite impressive progress, more remains to be done in terms of poverty reduction and levelling the playing field – both between and within countries....

If impact is so difficult to attribute to the MDGs, how should we monitor the progress of the SDGs? In March 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted 230 indicators to cover the 17 SDGs and their accompanying 169 targets. But given the limitations of and discussion surrounding impact attribution, should we want such a monitoring mechanism? Will it add any value?...

“This forum comes at a time when we need to disrupt the status quo in terms of how we do science and technology for development,” Dr. Gillian Marcelle, Trinidad & Tobago. “When you think about the industrial revolution, that is the biggest change we probably ever had. The SDGs could be the next revolution — they could constitute a new social contract for humanity to take a different road,” Prof. Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Serbia. These words — on the need for ch...

Do you know the difference between a migrant, a refugee, and an internally displaced person (IDP)? Between a special political mission and a peacekeeping operation? Between Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on Gender Equality and SDG 10 on Reduced Inequalities? The UNU Jargon Buster is a glossary app for UN terminology: from simple acronyms to political proceedings to technical designations. All entries are linked to online references or further readings, and arranged alphabetically, by sourc...

In the list of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their associated targets, the word ‘science’ appears 10 times; ‘technology’ shows up 31 times and finally ‘innovation’ reveals itself 17 times. Clearly, Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) are seen as important instruments that can help the world attain the SDGs — and why UNU-MERIT and partners will join the first ever STI Forum at UN Headquarters, New York. Date & Time: 6 June 2016, 6:15-7:30pm Location: Conference Room A in...

“The 2030 Agenda forms the new global development framework anchored around 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a total of 169 targets covering economic, social development, and environmental protection… In particular, Africa can take advantage of this universality of the 2030 Agenda to create partnerships across the goals and ensure effective implementation.” Maged Abdelfatah Abdelaziz, UN Special Adviser on Africa Our second international conference on ‘Sustainable D...