Behinderung und Entwicklungs­zusammen­arbeit e.V.

From the MDGs to the 2030 Agenda

A process of sustainable development has existed since the Rio Conference in 1992. In 2012, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Rio Conference, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) took place with the participation of numerous heads of state and government. The conference renewed the political commitment to implement all dimensions of sustainability and agreed on the development of sustainability goals. At the same time, deliberations began on the agenda that would follow the MDGs, which had a deadline of 2015. It quickly became clear that it made little sense to formulate development goals in parallel to the agreement to develop sustainability goals, so it quickly became clear that an agenda should be developed that combined the development and sustainability agendas in one agenda - the 2030 Agenda.

With the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the global community set out in 2000 to halve poverty and hunger by 2015, provide primary education for all children, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases, help protect the environment and build a Global Partnership for Development.

UN website of the Millennium Development Goals

Agenda 2030

At the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 25 September 2015, the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" was adopted with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (link to Agenda 2030). It takes the form of a global future treaty and is intended to help enable all people worldwide to live in dignity, peace and the preservation of our natural resources. It entered into force on 1 January 2016.

The new 2030 Agenda is a "sustainability declaration" by the heads of state and government and includes a catalogue of universal sustainability goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These global goals apply not only to the so-called developing and emerging countries, but also to the industrialised nations, and thus place an obligation on all countries to contribute to their implementation.The 2030 Agenda combines all three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, ecological and social development), which must be taken into account equally in its implementation. This indivisibility of the Agenda and the consideration of the interactions between economic, ecological and social goals are intended to contribute to the solution of urgent global problems such as climate change, overexploitation of natural resources, poverty and inequality.At the same time, the Agenda is based on a human rights-based approach and is underpinned by the claim to "Leave no one behind" and to actually reach all people, including particularly disadvantaged people. This includes people with impairments/disabilities in a special way. This means that in the implementation of all 17 goals, people with impairments/disabilities are to be taken into account, either as beneficiaries or active participants. In addition, people with impairments/disabilities are mentioned explicitly or as "persons in vulnerable situations" in seven goals.  The inclusiveness of the 2030 Agenda is a milestone for people with impairments/disabilities compared to previous international development initiatives, such as the Millennium Development Goals, as they were not mentioned in these and therefore not taken into account in many development processes.