The Millennium Development Goals: legacy, lessons, lookout

Rippin, Nicole
External Publications (2014)

in: Public Service without Borders 25 (2), 8-9

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), developed with the objective of monitoring the implementation of the commitments made in the Millennium Declaration, will expire in 2015. The debate on a post-2015 agenda that is to succeed the MDGs is already well under way. At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) in June 2012, Member States decided to set up an Open Working Group (OWG) and to entrust it with the task of developing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that build upon the MDGs and converge with the post-2015 agenda.
For this crucial task it is important to take stock of the considerable experience gained in over a decade of implementing the MDGs. Several lessons can be learned from the MDGs that can provide valuable guidance for the development of the post-2015 agenda. This article reflects upon these lessons and raises numerous challenging questions that need to be addressed urgently before the next General Assembly in September 2014 that will hopefully pave the way for the post-2015 agenda.

About the author

Rippin, Nicole

Economist