Post 2015: Global Action for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future

2. The case for global collective action
the mDGs have been one of the most successful
attempts ever to encourage global collective
action around a limited set of goals with one core
objective: a significant reduction of global poverty.
they have come to be central to the way the
international community thinks about, mobilises
support for, implements and monitors development
cooperation. Yet the international collective action
they have inspired has limits and the aim to achieve
a global partnership for development, as set out in
mDG8, has been one of the least successful. Despite
this, given the increasingly interconnected nature
of the global economy and the scale and urgency
of global challenges, strong international collective
action in a variety of areas remains fundamental
to eradicating global poverty and fulfilling the
millennium Declaration’s promise.
as the mDG deadline approaches, there is
therefore a need to review how the momentum
of this international effort can be sustained and
improved in a changing global context. although
countries must retain the policy space to follow
national development agendas, and there are
many internal factors that encourage or impede
their implementation, it is also important that
all countries have a conducive international
environment in which to pursue their development
agendas. collective action to achieve this enabling
environment is required in a wider range of fields
than just development cooperation. Encouraging
more extensive and reliable international action
and support for global development should thus be
a core element of a new post-2015 framework.
3. The Approach of the Report
the report relies on two notions that are used
extensively throughout. the first relates to the
3 http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/tdxiii_report_en.pdf/.
ultimate purpose of a new framework. For this, the
report adopts the term ‘inclusive and sustainable
development’ (ISD). the second is the question
of how to understand going ‘beyond mDGs’ and
‘beyond aid’.
Inclusive and sustainable development
the millennium Declaration still provides a
good consensual starting point for the post-2015
debate. the Declaration outlines a broad vision
of development that includes poverty eradication
as well as environmental sustainability, human
security, vulnerability, rights and good governance
(see Sections III-vI). this vision can best be
described as inclusive and sustainable development,
a term used in this report to encapsulate what a
potential new global framework ought to set
out to achieve. although the Declaration does
not explicitly refer to inclusive and sustainable
development, the term is now widely used. the
World bank used the term in its 2007 long-term
strategic planning exercise, and unctaD adopted
it in a 2011 report. 3 more immediately, the 2010
European report on Development was entitled
‘Social Protection for Inclusive Development’ and
the 2012 report focused on how to attain inclusive
and sustainable growth in a context of growing
scarcity of natural resources. the European
commission in its Agenda for Change (com, 2011)
also uses the term.
the term can perhaps best be understood through
an analysis of its three main components:
• Inclusive: although several countries have
achieved significant economic and social
progress and reduced poverty levels, the
benefits have not always been equitably shared.
Economic, social and political exclusion
undermine human development and threaten
the consolidation of recent gains in poverty
reduction. a focus on inclusiveness requires
poSt-2015: Global actIon For an IncluSIvE anD SuStaInablE FuturE
The Declaration
outlines a broad
vision of
development.
This vision can
best be described
as inclusive and
sustainable
development.
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