Considering the MDGs deadline was still three years away, 2012 was a surprisingly busy year for the post-2015 agenda. We've seen the UN high-level panel (HLP) formed and its first meetings held in New York and London, alongside a flurry of policy talks and UN consultations on what the world wants from any new goals. Whatever happens in the final negotiations, it's already clear that much of the job to keep this agenda on track will have to happen much sooner – starting now.
So 2013 is an important year. It's the year the panel submits its recommendations to the UN secretary general, and the year that the finally established Open Working Group on sustainable development goals (SDGs) sets the direction of its work (with a mandate overlapping that of the HLP). It's also the year that the UN will have to wrap up as many as 11 global consultations to gather wider views on the emerging agenda.
Despite progress we might have made during the MDGs, there clearly remains a big job ahead for post-2015 goals. One which is very different to the one we might have imagined a decade ago when the MDGs were agreed.
Read more at The Guardian
