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http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/post-2015
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Women & Girls
Photo: UNDP/Dilip Lokre
In 2015, countries agreed on the need for comprehensive
financing for development; they will adopt a new sustainable development
agenda; and they are expected to adopt a new global agreement on climate
change. Concluding a negotiating process that has spanned more than two years
and featured the unprecedented participation of civil society, on 2 August
2015, governments united behind an ambitious agenda that features 17 new sustainable development goals (SDGs)
and 169 targets that aim to end poverty, combat inequalities and promote
prosperity while protecting the environment by 2030.
Agreed by consensus, the draft outcome document “Transforming Our
World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, will be
formally adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Summit for the adoption
of the post-2015 development agenda, to be held in New York from 25-27
September 2015.
The new sustainable development agenda builds on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), drafted in 2000, which focused on reducing
poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and ensuring access to water and
sanitation by 2015. The new sustainable development goals, and broader
sustainability agenda, aim to complete what the MDGS did not achieve, and go
much further, addressing the root causes of poverty and inequality and the
universal need for development that works for all people.
The new agenda is an action plan for people, planet,
prosperity, peace and partnership. It will foster peaceful, just and inclusive
societies and require the participation of all countries, stakeholders and
people. The ambitious agenda seeks to end poverty by 2030 and promote shared
economic prosperity, social development and environmental protection for all
countries. The new agenda is based on 17 goals, including a stand-alone goal on
gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as well as gender
sensitive targets in other goals.
This is the first development agenda that has been
negotiated by all Member States and that is applicable to all for the next 15
years. The outcome reiterates national ownership and leadership in the
implementation of the agenda.
What’s Next?
Tasked with developing indicators to monitor global
progress on these new goals, an Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators
was established and UN Women contributes as an observer. The Group’s proposal
will be presented for approval to the Statistical Commission at its
forty-seventh session in March 2016.
In July 2015, the Third International Conference on
Financing for Development concluded with a clear
recognition of gender equality as a critical element in achieving
sustainable development, with States adopting the Addis Ababa
Action Agenda. UN Women intensely engaged in the negotiations,
advocating for a commitment to transformative
financing for gender equality. UN Women will now work with a group
of Member States to implement an Action Plan
on Transformative Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment,
to ensure that the gender commitments that were included in the agreed text
will be turned into actions.
The UN system now stands ready to support governments in
the implementation of the new sustainable development agenda, which builds on
the successful outcome in Addis Ababa.
To spur concrete commitments and position gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment at the centre of the global agenda, UN Women and the People’s Republic of China are co-hosting and co-organizing a “Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action” on 27 September 2015, at UN Headquarters in New York.