October 2015: Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), civil society groups and others have welcomed the Agenda and provided commentary on the SDGs and critical next steps in their implementation. Several interventions recommend indicators for consideration at the upcoming meeting of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs).

Ending poverty will be tougher than halving poverty, for five reasons identified in a Development Initiatives blog. First, extreme poverty is concentrated in complex, difficult contexts, which makes tackling the causes much harder, particularly since climate change and conflict can push people into poverty and keep them there. Second, extreme poverty has increased in 30 countries, including 18 in sub-Saharan Africa, which means rates of reduction will need to increase. Third, countries will have to reduce poverty at sub-national levels, which will require more detailed data on people in poverty. Fourth, ending poverty will require changing behavior to allocate aid to the poorest people. Finally, a data revolution would be critical to measure progress and get poverty to zero.

Oxfam says it is possible to end extreme poverty by 2030, and presents 17 reasons why the SDGs are important, such as their universal, transformative nature and their focus on leaving no one behind and tackling inequality. Other reasons include the Goals’ focus on: the root causes of poverty; human rights, including on issues related to access to education and land rights; and sustainable environmental and natural resource use, including addressing climate change and land and water resources. Other highlighted reasons are the inclusion of: SDG 16 on peace and security; social protections; and ending all forms of violence against women and girls.

The Primate of Brazil, Francisco de Assis da Silva, welcomed the SDGs and called on the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil (IEAB) to adopt them and “help to shape our communities into agents of transformation.” The Primate requested provincial churches to study the SDG framework and prepare concrete actions with which the church can help Brazil move toward an environmentally responsible, socially fair, and democratically and economically strong society.

On monitoring and review, Civicus reported on the findings of global, regional, national and online consultations on the role of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda. Findings emphasize that the HLPF annual review process should include comparable national and thematic reviews and processes to facilitate contributions from Major Groups and other Stakeholders. The report also highlights: interest in citizen-led monitoring and citizen-generated data; different knowledge about the HLPF among stakeholders; and need for awareness-raising and capacity building about the HLPF for Major Groups.

Indicator development is the next phase for the post-2015 framework, reflects the Beyond 2015 Indicators Task Force. It notes that SDG indicators must reflect the scope and ambition of the Goals and targets while maximizing the potential for interlinkages between mutually reinforcing Goals. The group recommends prioritizing indicators to monitor core targets and overlapping targets, and ensuring indicators can be disaggregated across key axes of inequality. Beyond 2015 also cautions against dropping indicators if doing so means part of a Goal or target will not be measured.

Action Against Hunger UK recommends that the SDG framework measure progress on eliminating wasting in children. They welcome the UK Government’s support for such an indicator, and call for the UK to actively champion such an indicator at the upcoming IAEG-SDG meeting.

Childhood immunization should be included in the SDG framework as a stand-alone indicator for measuring progress toward universal health coverage (UHC), writes Seth Berkley, Gavi, in a ‘Nature’ article. If the UN does not include immunization as a distinct indicator, Berkley urges the UN to be clear that some of the UHC sub-indicators, such as immunization, carry more weight than others.

According to a Chatham House paper, more thought and action is needed on the global health architecture for the post-2015 agenda. Chatham House recommends strong, resilient and equitable health systems and reflects on necessary steps to finance health and health systems. The paper also highlights the importance of: addressing non-communicable diseases (NCDs); strengthening weak health systems to protect global health security, including enhancing global disease surveillance and detection capacities; global health funds to continue to support fragile states; enhancing research and development on health; and increasing leadership on health through the creation of ‘UN-HEALTH.’ [Development Initiatives] [Oxfam Blog] [Anglican News] [HLPF Stakeholder Consultation] [Beyond 2015 Paper] [Action Against Hunger Press Release] [Nature Article] [IAEG-SDGs 2]