Post - 2015 Sustainable Development Goals
The International Council for Science’s independent
assessment of the goals gave them a cautious
thumbs up.
• Not everyone agrees. The Lancet described the
goals as “fairy tales, dressed in the bureaucratese of
intergovernmental narcissism, adorned with the
robes of multilateral paralysis, and poisoned by the
acid of nation-state failure”.
• This may be true, but it ignores the fact that the
goals have been heavily negotiated, so will never be
perfect. Instead, they are about values. However,
they have broad legitimacy among all parties –
which is a big deal.
• The concern now is how to make people care
about the SDGs. If no one notices them, they
won’t attract the attention they need to build
momentum. This is a very real issue because the
media has largely ignored them to date. British
film- maker Richard Curtis aims to bring the
goals to 7 billion people. Part one of the plan
has been to work with the Swedish designer Jakob
Trollbäck to rebrand them as the Global Goals and
create an army of #goalkeepers.
• While the Millennium Development Goals were
aimed at poorer countries (more or less), the new
goals are designed to be universal. This is
a monumental shift in thinking about sustainable
development from a worldview where rich nations
support poorer nations to develop, towards a view
where the actions of all, particularly those in
wealthy nations, risk destabilizing important parts
of Earth’s life-support system – most obviously the
climate, the oceans, biodiversity and the forests.
• So which country is most likely to complete the
goals first? Sweden, according to one report.
Norway, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland are
close behind.
About the Author:
Guest editor of this series is Owen Gaffney, Director,
International Media and Strategy, Stockholm Resilience Centre
and Future Earth
Corporate Water Stewardship
Companies around the world increasingly recognize
the risk that water scarcity, pollution, and weak water
governance have to their core business. They are beginning
to acknowledge the need to manage water as a key input
to production and better address the ways in which their
water use and wastewater discharge can affect nearby
ecosystems and communities. Indeed, some companies
have already felt the effects of the global water crisis on
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2015
their business, whether it
be by losing their license to
operate due to inequitable
or unsustainable practices,
stalling operations due
to a lack