First draft of sustainable development goals exposes gaps, warn NGOs

Three months before the SDGs are adopted, experts praise ambition of vision but fear methods are too weak to measure progress in areas such as women’s rights

The new set of development goals that will address global poverty, inequality and climate change over the next 15 years are strong on vision, but weak on the methods to make them a reality, NGOs warned this week.

After months of negotiations among UN member states, the first official – “zero” – draft of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) was published on Tuesday.

As widely expected, the number of goals (17) and number of targets (169) have not changed since they were first proposed by a UN open working group last year. Some of the targets have been recommended for revisions.   READ MORE