“In the context of international development, the year 2015 marked the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the much broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the much more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It signalled an emerging paradigm shift in the international development agenda, a collectively agreed set of universal goals for an inclusive and sustainable global development process.
At the outset, I want to point out that, without the MDGs, we could not have arrived at the SDGs. Although progress on achieving the MDGs has been uneven across regions, significant achievements have been made on the many MDG targets worldwide. Above all, extreme poverty has been reduced by half and access to schools, health services and clean water has increased. It was the MDGs that laid the foundations for what we now call the SDGs.
Among others, the SDGs (such as Goal 9) emphasize the need for full and productive employment; investing and advancing industry, innovation, and infrastructure; reducing inequality; promoting sustainable cities; and strengthening development partnership. In this spirit, the goals are embedded in sustainability, quality of growth, and transformation. In short, if the objective is to achieve the ambitious and wide-ranging goals specified under the SDGs, then the type of growth matters.”