(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM)) With a prominent UAE contribution, the United Nations today concluded negotiations on the landmark Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the most far-reaching international decision on development in the 70-year history of the organization.
The goals specify outcomes to be achieved by 2030 across a broad range of social, environmental, and economic areas.
Reflecting its international leadership, the UAE was notably credited for driving new goals on gender equality and sustainable energy, and also led the 22-country Arab Group in the negotiations. The SDGs will be adopted by all 193 UN member countries during a summit in New York City on September 25-27, influencing government policies and trillions of dollars in spending.
"The SDGs represent a breakthrough in the way the international community thinks about the interlinkages between growth, social norms, and the environment, and the UAE is proud to have high ambitions across these objectives," said Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's ambassador to the United Nations. "Countries now have a clear guide for transformation at home, as well as for the way they can support sustainable development in other countries."
The SDGs have two principal dimensions. They first represent a commitment by each country to achieve the SDGs domestically. Annual reports will look at performance in the wide range of sectors covered by the SDGs, from school enrollment rates to provision of clean drinking water to agricultural practices. For the UAE, most goals will be met automatically because of the UAE's high development level and existing green growth strategy. However, the UAE will need to establish a framework to monitor and report progress. Second, the SDGs encourage investors and providers of foreign aid to align their activities to achieve the 2030 outcomes in other countries. The UAE has been the world's top donor for two years in a row, based on aid as a percentage of gross national income, resulting in high interest in the negotiations on UAE positions. The forthcoming strategy under the Ministry of International Cooperation and Development will outline how UAE aid will be directed toward the SDGs.
"The SDGs validate the UAE's longstanding approach to make development progress through innovation," said Majid Al Suwaidi, the lead negotiator and the head of climate affairs and sustainability at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The challenges of resource scarcity and climate change mean we have to quickly find new means to both raise people out of poverty and enable continued economic growth in wealthier countries. We were able to take many lessons from our own development and embed them in the SDGs - for instance, granting equitable rights for men and women to strengthen our economy, and using renewable energy to power it."
The SDGs are the successor of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were launched in 2000 and expire this year. The MDGs have been one of the most successful tools to focus international attention on poverty eradication, facilitating major gains on health and education in the lowest-income countries. UAE organizations like Dubai Cares, which supports children's and especially girls' education in 38 lower-income countries, have been prominent in the MDG agenda. The SDGs will also stress poverty eradication, but they are designed to cover a greater spectrum of development issues. New focus areas include energy, water, peace and social inclusion, climate change, ocean management, agriculture, and sustainable industrialization, among others. There are 17 SDGs with 169 underpinning targets vs. 8 MDGs with 21 targets. Importantly, the SDGs will apply to all countries, not poor countries alone.
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