The
Secretary-General's Agenda: Indispensable for Sustainable Development
By Jeffrey D. Sachs
Global sustainable
development and security are deeply interconnected, a fact that
is increasingly recognized by world leaders. Sustainable development
signifies the challenge of combining economic development with
environmental sustainability. When sustainable development fails
and a region falls prey to extreme poverty, disease, hunger
and environmental crises, the resulting disarray may lead to
violence and even war. No one can doubt that conflicts, such
as in Darfur and Somalia, reflect, in large part, extreme poverty
and environmental degradation. Peace and security in such places
must be achieved hand in hand with poverty reduction, disease
control, food security and environmental sustainability.
The dual challenge of security and sustainable development will
intensify in the coming years, especially as climate change,
rising global populations and increasing degradation of critical
ecosystems further threaten lives and livelihoods. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon and the broader United Nations system are poised
to play an indispensable role in addressing the interconnected
challenges of security and sustainable development. As he remarked
recently to the UN Economic and Social Council, "development
for all is central to the UN mission. Together with security
and respect for human rights, it represents our core aspirations
for a peaceful and better world".
Over the 15 years since the 1992 Earth Summit, held in Rio de
Janeiro, world leaders have adopted vital goals regarding poverty
reduction, health and environmental sustainability. Yet, despite
these shared objectives, very few goals have made the needed
transition from words to action, even after the remarkable international
political mobilization in 2005 behind the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the world
during the administration of Secretary-General Ban will be the
achievement of these shared goals. Success will open the way
to peace and to a profound betterment of the human condition,
especially for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.
The MDGs that resulted from the UN Millennium Summit in 2000
and the commitment to mitigate climate change under the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 are the
most central and prominent among the agreed objectives. But
many other crucial goals have also been set, including the commitment
to slow the loss of biodiversity under the 1992 Convention on
Biological Diversity and various specific commitments to control
AIDS, malaria and other killer diseases. Today, the fundamental
task facing the United Nations, and indeed the world, is not
to set new development goals; instead, it is to ensure the sound
and science-based implementation of existing goals, the success
of which is vital to human betterment, perhaps even survival.
Admirably, Mr. Ban has repeatedly emphasized his determination
to use the good offices of the Secretary-General to help achieve
these global objectives.
There are several compelling reasons for the UN system to promote
a powerful sustainable development agenda:
• Issues concerning sustainable development are urgent
life-and-death challenges for the poorest people, and lack of
progress among the fast-growing populations of the poorest countries
will only heighten the security risks for the rest of the world.
• Globally agreed goals like the MDGs are in fact achievable
if they are pursued with steadfastness, good organization and
global leadership.
• Security and peacekeeping goals will be unachievable
unless security measures (e.g. peacekeepers) are combined with
poverty-reduction measures (provision of increased access to
water). The new Peacebuilding Commission was established for
this reason.
• The legitimacy of global governance depends on complementing
the security agenda of the major powers with the sustainable
development agenda of weaker countries.
• The United Nations has unparalleled scope for bridging
eminent professional communities focused on the challenges of
security and sustainable development.
The term "sustainable development" has often been
interpreted to suggest a focus on the environment. While environmental
sustainability is central to human well-being, a more integrated
policy view of the term should also include an emphasis on poverty
reduction and health. To that end, the world has set a clear
agenda of bold yet achievable goals for sustainable development.
Poverty reduction. The MDGs are the overarching framework
for tackling extreme poverty, as agreed by all UN Member States,
and have become the organizing principles for almost all major
development programmes. However, there are several other key
internationally agreed development goals. Two notable intergovernmental
agreements are the Monterrey Consensus of the 2002 International
Conference on Financing for Development and the final Outcome
Document of the United Nations 2005 World Summit. The World
Trade Organization's Doha Round of negotiations also has an
important development component, broadly perceived as an indicator
of the commitment of developed countries in fulfilling their
promises of advancing sustainable development.
Public health. There are several crucial health goals,
including targets in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and
malaria, which have been agreed on in special conferences and
sessions of the General Assembly, as well as in the MDGs. The
World Health Assembly has adopted many important health goals
in recent years, while international efforts are coordinating
in the fight against newly emerging diseases, such as avian
flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Environmental sustainability. The key environment agreements
include the three Rio Conventions (the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and
the UN Convention to Combat Desertification), as well as the
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and
various other treaties. Additional goals and timetables were
also set in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the 2002
World Summit on Sustainable Development. MDG 7 also calls for
ensuring environmental sustainability.
Several major UN initiatives have reached outside the UN system
urging leading experts to study the agreed objectives and in
some instances outline pathways to achieve them. For example,
in the span of almost three years, the UN Millennium Project
convened some 300 experts from around the world, culminating
with the presentation of 14 volumes and an overview report to
describe the practical investments needed to achieve the MDGs;
most of its key recommendations were adopted at the 2005 World
Summit. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which
will issue its fourth assessment report, Climate Change 2007,
brings together worldwide expertise and has identified some
clear steps towards mitigation of climate change. The Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment similarly brought together international
experts in a groundbreaking analytical process, which revealed
the enormous and risky human interference, vis-à-vis
many of the major ecosystems and ecological processes, and also
pathways out of environmental danger.
A major lesson of the past decade is that implementation of
internationally agreed goals requires a sound plan of action,
a committed core team of thoughtful and practical leaders, who
are able to advance implementation even when circumstances evolve
and political attention is diverted, and a concerted coordination
among a large number of involved institutions, stakeholders
and Governments. At this critical juncture, Secretary-General
Ban is in a unique position to help propel such a global effort.
His early public commitment to the priorities of sustainable
development offers an opportunity to align the remarkable array
of stakeholders, eminent experts and organizations needed to
implement practical action around shared international goals.
The MDGs have already proven to be very effective as a global
organizing principle. UN agencies, Governments, civil society
organizations, foundations and even private businesses are increasingly
mobilizing around actions to achieve these development goals.
Of course, much more will be needed to ensure their success,
but the key lesson is that similar mobilization will be necessary
around other globally agreed goals, e.g. for climate, disease
control and biodiversity conservation, if they are to succeed.
The year 2007 can and should be a time of great progress in
sustainable development. The MDGs are at their halfway mark
to the 2015 target deadline and can succeed with reinforced
support. The parties to the UN Framework Convention have announced
their determination to enter into negotiations for a climate
agreement to cover the period after 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol
expires. Member Governments are committed to specific progress
on disease control, such as AIDS and malaria targets for 2010,
and seem determined to back up words with actions. New measures
need to be taken to meet global objectives to slow the loss
of biodiversity by 2010, and success can be achieved this year
in protecting both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. These
challenges are clear and success can underpin peace and well-being
for generations to come. |
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Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet
Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of Health
Policy and Management at Columbia University, and is currently
the Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the
MDGs. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the UN Millennium
Project and also served as Special Advisor to former Secretary-General
Kofi Annan.
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