FAMBB

20 introDuCtionGlobalisation means that national or regional disastershave worldwide impacts: floods in Bangladesh could affectthe global clothing industryLeading by exampleTo date, the UK has been a leading player in the SDG process, withthe Prime Minister serving on the High-Level Panel on the Post-2015Development Agenda. The UK has also led by example by becoming, forinstance, one of just a handful of countries to meet the longstanding UNtarget of allocating 0.7% GNI to development assistance.The UK can build on its development record and multiply its impactby ensuring its own best practices are reflected in the new goals, bysetting an example in terms of rich-country responsibilities and bypromoting coordination among UN frameworks.UNA-UK believes the UK should:• Set out its vision of the institutional reforms needed to underpinthe new agenda, including clear commitments to strengthen the UN.• Encourage the post-2015 meetings on financing to produce clearrecommendations on traditional and non-traditional sources offunding.• Champion opportunities and mechanisms for ongoing public andparliamentary involvement in local-level design, delivery andmonitoring of the SDGs.• Call for early discussions on how the SDGs will relate to and reinforcethe global climate agreement due to be adopted in 2015.• Embrace the universality of the new SDGs framework and lead byexample, including by committing to outline its plan to achieverelevant targets in the UK context.© Reuterswhether our global system is capable of delivering onthe goals.Ideas for what we should do on tax, trade,remittances and data come from Jo Marie Griesgraber,Arancha González, Laura Thompson and NancyMcGuire Choi. Practical examples come from BrahimaSanou on ICTs, Faraj El-Awar on water partnershipsand Veena Khaleque on community knowledge sharingin Bangladesh.In our final piece, Richard Jolly looks ahead to thenegotiations and to the role of Europe. Perhaps themost important shift from MDGs to SDGs is that thenew agenda will be universally applicable. How willwealthy countries like the UK approach targets suchas halving the proportion of those living in povertyaccording to national definitions? Or halving per capitafood waste at the retail and consumer level? The UNFood and Agriculture Organization estimates thatconsumers in rich countries waste almost as much foodas the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa.UNA-UK believes that the UK can build on itsstrong development record by leading by exampleand encouraging others to embrace the universality ofthe new framework. It should also continue to pushfor a progressive set of SDGs, with human rights andgood governance at its heart, as well as clear targets toaddress inequalities and specific actions for vulnerablegroups, including monitoring processes that bettertrack their progress.Developed and developing countries alike shoulduse the coming months to focus on the globalpartnership, looking at financing; the roles andresponsibilities of governments, business and civilsociety; and the institutional developments andmechanisms needed to deliver the new framework,including how it will complement and reinforce UNclimate change processes.In all of this, states must not lose sight of the needto support and strengthen our global system itself,with the UN at its heart. Global instability makes ittempting to turn inwards and focus on problems closerto home. But our challenges are shared and domesticissues increasingly have a global dimension. Any visionfor the SDGs must be underpinned by investment inour institutions.Finally, all of us must play our part in ensuring thatstates focus on the practicalities of implementing thenew development agenda, without losing the vision andambition the world needs.GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2014