UN set to change the world with new development goals.

Lack of ambition is not something the UN can be accused of these days. Over the past 3 years it has been preparing to “transform the world” between now and 2030. On Aug 1, it launched the Agenda for Global Action that set out how this objective would be reached. The agenda called for the attainment of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), each with its complement of targets that have to be reached by a specified time. The attainment of these goals and their targets, the agenda document explains, will “free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and [will] heal and secure our planet for present and future generations”. At the end of September, the list of SDGs will be formally presented for adoption by the heads of state of all 193 UN member countries at the UN General Assembly in New York, NY, USA. At the time of writing, no further changes can be made to it. Few doubt that the world could do with changing but some pale at the enormity of the task. “The world is already changing in many ways”, says Macharia Kamau, ambassador and permanent representative of Kenya to the UN, and coauthor of the agenda document. “The historical progression of our societies over the past 50 years has brought us to a point where we now have an opportunity of doing business diff erently and these SDGs signal to the world the need to seize that opportunity. Can we make this next leap forwards? I believe we can, and I believe the SDGs will show us how to make that leap.”