Debating the issues
In 2000, Member States of the United Nations agreed a set of “Millennium Development Goals” or MDGs, as the key global plan to end extreme poverty. These 8 Goals were broadly worded, but each goal included specific targets and indicators by which progress towards those targets could be measured. The target date was set for 2015.
Many human rights groups were critical of the MDGs, arguing they ignored many human rights issues that are central in the fight against poverty. A new set of goals – the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) – were adopted in 2015; there are 17 of them. Though still criticized by human rights groups, the SDGs take a more comprehensive approach to the fight against poverty and include specific targets that clearly overlap with human rights commitments.
A list of the 17 SDGs is here. Click on the targets for each goal (you need not read the ‘progress report’) and familiarize yourself with what the goals are trying to achieve.
Read these pieces about the SDGs on openGlobalRights: