Editing International development (section)

==Global Goals==

=== Sustainable Development Goals (2015 to 2030) ===
{{Main|Sustainable Development Goals}}

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) served a successful framework to guide international development efforts, having achieved progress on some of the 8 goals. For example, by 2015 the extreme poverty rate had already been cut into half.<ref name="From MDGs to SDGs">{{Cite news |date=2014-12-17 |title=From MDGs to SDGs |language=en |work=Sustainable Development Goals Fund |url=http://www.sdgfund.org/mdgs-sdgs |access-date=2018-11-09}}</ref>  Other targets achieved include access to safe drinking water, malaria, and gender equality in schooling.<ref>Transitioning from the MDGs to the SDGs, World Bank Group, United Nations Development Programme</ref> Yet, some scholars have argued that the MDGs lack the critical perspectives required to alleviate poverty and structures of inequality, reflected in the serious lags to achieving numerous other goals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McCloskey |first=Stephen |title=From MDGs to SDGs: We need a critical awakening to succeed |journal=Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review}}</ref>

As the MDG era came to an end, 2015 marked the year that the [[United Nations General Assembly]] adopted a new agenda for development.<ref name="United Nations Official Document">{{Cite web |title=United Nations Official Document |url=http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E |access-date=2018-11-09 |website=www.un.org}}</ref> Former UN Secretary General [[Ban Ki-moon|Ban Ki Moon]] referred to this as a "defining moment in history" calling on states to "act in solidarity".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Secretary-General's remarks at Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda [scroll down for French version] {{!}} United Nations Secretary-General |url=https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2015-09-25/secretary-generals-remarks-summit-adoption-post-2015-development |access-date=2018-11-09 |website=www.un.org |language=en}}</ref> Succeeding the MDG agenda, 17 [[Sustainable Development Goals]] (SDGs) were created, with 169 indicators.<ref name="United Nations Official Document" /> UN resolution 70/1 adopted on September 25, 2015, was titled "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", solidifying 17 new goals that had been in motion since 2014.<ref name="From MDGs to SDGs" /><ref name="United Nations Official Document" /> The goals came into force in January 2016, focusing on areas of climate change, economic inequality, democracy, poverty, and peacebuilding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sustainable Development Goals {{!}} UNDP |url=http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html |access-date=2018-11-09 |website=UNDP |language=en}}</ref>

Although the SDGs were built on the foundation of the MDGs, there are some key differences in both processes. Before adoption, unlike the MDGs, the SDGs had been in discussion for months, involving civil society actors, NGOs, as well as an opening summit involving intergovernmental negotiations.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Solberg |first=Erna |title=From MDGs to SDGs the political value of common global goals |journal=Harvard International Review |volume=Fall 2015 |pages=58–61}}</ref> The new global development agenda places a greater emphasis on collective action, combining the efforts of multiple stakeholders to increase the sustainability of the goals. This emphasis on sustainability has also led to more cross-sector partnerships, and combined international efforts across areas of environmental, social, cultural, political, and economic development.<ref name=":0" />

=== Millennium Development Goals (2000 to 2015) ===
{{Main|Millennium Development Goals}}

In 2000, United Nations signed the [[United Nations Millennium Declaration]], which includes eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015.  This represented the first time that a holistic strategy to meet the development needs of the world has been established, with measurable targets and defined indicators.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/default.aspx|title=Millennium Development Goals Indicators|publisher=United Nations Statistics Division|access-date=2008-01-13|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103065539/http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Default.aspx|archive-date=2008-01-03}}</ref>

Because the MDGs were agreed as global targets to be achieved by the global community, they are independent of, but by no means unrelated to, individual national interests. The goals imply that every state has a set of obligations to the world community to meet and that other states, who have achieved those goals, have an obligation to help those who have not. As such they may represent an extension of the concept of human rights.

The first seven Millennium Development Goals present measurable goals, while the eighth lists a number of 'stepping stone' goals – ways in which progress towards the first seven goals could be made. Each goal uses indicators based on statistical series  collected and maintained by respected organisations in each relevant field (usually the UN agency responsible but also the OECD, IMF and World Bank)

The MDGs have catalysed a significant amount of action, including new initiatives such as [[Millennium Promise]]. Most of these initiatives however work in small scale interventions which do not reach the millions of people required by the MDGs.

Recent praise has been that it will be impossible to meet the first seven goals without meeting the eighth by forming a ''Global Partnership for Development''. No current organisation has the capacity to dissolve the enormous problems of the developing world alone – especially in cities, where an increasing number of poor people live – as demonstrated by the almost nonexistent progress on the goal of improving the lives of at least 100 Million slum dwellers.{{Citation needed|date=January 2008}}

The [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] ''Engineering Without Frontiers'' panel and its recommendations, and the 2007 Brunel Lecture by the ICE's 2009–2010 president [[Paul Jowitt]], are representative of a change of approach in the UK at least to start drawing together the huge capacity available to western governments, industry, academia and charity to develop such a partnership.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sistech.co.uk/media/ICEBrunelLecture2006.pdf?Docu_id=1420&faculty=14|author=Jowitt, Paul|year=2006|title=Engineering Civilisation from the Shadows|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061006054029/http://www.sistech.co.uk/media/ICEBrunelLecture2006.pdf?Docu_id=1420&faculty=14|archive-date=2006-10-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sistech.co.uk/media/Jowitt_EWF_ICE_Cambridge_nzss2004_final_pdf.pdf|author=Jowitt, Paul|title=Engineering Without Frontiers|date=July 2004|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221203717/http://www.sistech.co.uk/media/Jowitt_EWF_ICE_Cambridge_nzss2004_final_pdf.pdf|archive-date=2007-02-21}}</ref>

===Other goals===
International development also aims to improve general government policies of these developing countries. "[[State-building|State building]]" is the strengthening of regional institutions necessary to support long-term economic, social, and political development. Education is another important aspect of international development. It is a good example of how the focus today is on sustainable development in these countries; education gives people the skills required to keep themselves out of poverty.<ref name="cgdev.org">(2009). Retrieved from Center for Global Development: www.cgdev.org</ref>