IPS - Leave No One Behind

What Does it Really Mean to “Leave No One Behind”?

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 13 2016 (IPS) – Although “leave no one behind” has become a central rallying cry around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, more needs to be done for it to be put into practice, civil society said during a review conference of progress made on the Post-2030 agenda here this week.

Unlike the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)  which failed to address structural inequality, ecological sustainability, and the responsibilities of the global North, the 2030 Agenda acknowledges the “enormous disparities of opportunity, wealth, and power,” as immense challenges to sustainable development – a first for an intergovernmental document.

Yet despite these changes,  the first year of the fifteen year 2030 Agenda has yet to see a change in the trajectory of global development, according to the Spotlight Report on Sustainable Development 2016 published this week.
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Another report published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) on Monday, the first day of the High Level Political Forum, found the total cost of leaving no one behind in health, education and social protection across the 75 countries for which they have data is an annual average of $739 billion.