June 2012: The UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda has submitted its report to the UN Secretary-General, titled “Realizing the Future We Want for All.” The report of the Task Team – which is co-chaired by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) – aims to serve as a first reference for broader consultations.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon established the Task Team in September 2011 to support UN system-wide preparations for the post-2015 development agenda, through consultations with over 50 UN entities and international organizations. The eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were agreed upon in 2000, will formally expire in 2015.

The report defines the goal of the post-2015 UN development agenda as ensuring “that globalization becomes a positive force for all the worlds’ peoples of present and future generations” and points to the need for more sustainable patterns of consumption and production and resource use. It states that “persistent inequalities and struggles over scarce resources are among key determinants of situations of conflict, hunger, insecurity and violence, which in turn are key factors that hold back human development and efforts to achieve sustainable development.”

The report includes sections on: the transformative power of global goals; global trends, challenges and opportunities to which the post-2015 UN development agenda should respond; a vision of “the future we want for all;” shaping the global development agenda; and the way forward. The section on the way forward includes initial guidance from Member States, as well as a proposed roadmap highlighting the need to bring different voices into the process, and identifying major milestones leading to 2015.

The Task Team recommends that the post-2015 development agenda: be based on concrete end goals and targets, and organized along four key dimensions, namely inclusive social development, inclusive economic development, environmental sustainability, and peace and security; leave ample space for national policy design and adaptation to local settings; involve reforms of mechanisms of global governance; and be aligned with the outcome to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), and other relevant consultation processes.

According to the report, the agenda should “crystallize” priorities into clear, easy-to-communicate sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The Task Team will inform a High-level Panel of Eminent Persons, expected to convene in July 2012 and deliver its report in early 2013, which will inform negotiations. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is expected to host a special event on this process in 2013, and then agree upon further intergovernmental processes. [Publication: Realizing the Future We Want for All: Report to the Secretary-General] [IISD RS Story on Formation of High-level Panel] [ECOSOC Webpage on MDGs and Post-2015 Development Agenda] [Membership of UN Task Team]