WORKSHOP SCHOOLS AND THE SDGs
1. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MILLENNIUM GOALS AND THE 2030 AGENDA Although the United Nations clearly acknowledges the successes of the Millennium Development Goals, a simple glance at both agendas shows that the SDGs are more complex, in many ways. Not just because they now encompass more than twice as many goals, but also because the areas of action are much more widely and more rationally distributed. The SDGs cover all the same sectors as the MDGs, as well as adding newer ones, conceived over the 12-year incubation period of the 2030 Agenda and already seen as key to tackling poverty and inequality in the world. A. CONSTRUCTION PROCESS As with most recent advances in all aspects of life - technology, science, social life, politics, economics, etc., the frameworks within which societies development have been adapted to new realities. The same can be said of human develop. It was in this context, in the early 20th century, that the Millennium Declaration was ushered in. Its eight goals and twenty-one targets are based on principles of liberty, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for the environment and shared responsibility. However, the world continues to turn and, 15 years later those goals had become obsolete, either because they were too vague or because they failed to anticipate issues which rapidly acquired greater significance. In the three years prior to the adoption of the Agenda for Sustainable Development, a series of actions were undertaken at world level, reaching their peak at the Rio20 Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012, with the motto “The future we want”. This laid the foundation for the Open Work Group on Sustainable Development Goals, involving 70 countries in 5 regions (Spain shared a chair with Italy and Turkey). The Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing and the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development were set up, holding eight stocktaking sessions from March 2013 to February 2014, followed by a further six sessions from March to July 2014, at which they defined the 19 focal areas which formed the basis for the 17 final SDGs, stimulating action in the four areas of critical importance for sustainable development – peace, prosperity, persons and partnerships. On 25 September 2015, the 193 countries of the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Development Agenda “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. B. General Comments on the 2030 Agenda The 2030 Agenda has been defined as a great achievement and a great agreement. It is good both for developing countries and for countries which have supposedly overcome the issues addressed, but which nevertheless face a range of distinct issues of equal importance and global reach: the environment, sustainability, and the multilateral effects of poverty and inequality. Accordingly, the positive reaction to the 2030 Agenda is justified, not only on account of its content and reach, but also on account of the manner in which it was produced and its unprecedented scale, scope and complexity.
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