Editing International development (section)

=== 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" />