Five ways the sustainable development goals are better than the millennium development goals and why every educationalist should care

1. Universality means every single child, in every single place

There is little doubt that the MDGs, while a UN project, were largely framed in the context of what rich nations should be doing to aid poorer nations (otherwise known as least developed countries). The focus was primarily on reshaping aid agendas and the official development assistance (ODA) budgets that underpinned them. The world has changed a great deal since 2001. Much of the change is positive – formerly very poor countries, particularly in Asia, have gained, or are moving swiftly towards, middle income status, and the economies of South America have changed dramatically. During the same period, a major financial recession has rocked many industrialized economies, and in some rich countries inequalities and pockets of entrenched disadvantage have emerged as significant concerns. Gaps between rich and poor are large within countries and not only between them, with most of the world’s poorest people actually living in middle-income states. So the SDGs are universal – they apply to all countries and actors. They are designed to leave no one behind, especially the most disadvantaged – the goals now explicitly refer to persons with disabilities: six targets refer to people in vulnerable situations and two refer to non-discrimination. Critically, this focus on tackling inequality, wherever it is in the world, challenges all of us in the richer industrialized nations, because all member states endorsed them and must apply them in their own countries – the goals count at home as well as abroad. For children everywhere, the goals are about their universal human rights and the duty we bear to them, whether they are in Dakar, Delhi or Dartford.

2. The education goal is more than ‘bums on seats’

The enormous increase in educational enrolment rates achieved in the past 15 years is without doubt one of the greatest achievements of the MDG era. In fact the number of children out of primary school education has almost halved over the period. Although the goal of universal primary education across the globe has not been met, it is estimated that 91 percent of the world’s children were enrolled at primary school in 2015. However, some serious challenges remain with equality of access (girls have lower enrolment rates, as do those with special educational or physical needs). Crucially, a focus on enrolment numbers – or ‘bums on seats’ – could conceal the fact that the quality of education has not always risen and indeed in some cases is likely to have declined. The SDGs focus on the quality of learning and the role of education in building a more just and peaceful world, promoting sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity. The SDGs recognize that education is not only every child’s right but it is also the key to every nation’s ability to build stronger, more peaceful and more equitable societies. To achieve the new development goals, we need to increase access to quality educational opportunity, from early childhood through adolescence and beyond – especially for the most disadvantaged and marginalized children most likely to be excluded or for whom educational attainment can be inhibited by social barriers, including girls and children with disabilities.

3. Business is getting on board

While the economies of the world have changed dramatically in the past 15 years, so too have resource flows. The MDGs were designed with a clear focus on aid spending, some of which did not materialize in the way envisaged. Today, so-called ‘donor government’ ODA spending represents a smaller proportion of the resources fuelling development, and the SDGs have been designed with inclusive economic development at the core of the strategy. The SDGs differ from what went before in their explicit acknowledgement of the role of the private sector in promoting sustainable growth and importantly supporting developing countries to develop their own revenue-generating capabilities.

Throughout the SDG development process a consensus maintained that business had a crucial role to play in achieving transformational global development. This time around, there was little doubt in the minds of the goals’ architects that, in order to deliver on a framework that includes vast ambitions ranging from ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against children to achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all, the business sector must be engaged. Private-sector business leaders did indeed play a significant role in shaping the goals and in acknowledging their role, both in financing economic growth and sustainable development and in ensuring that business practices supported rather than undermined the achievement of the goals’ aims.

Almost immediately following the SDGs being adopted, more than 35 corporate commitments were made to benchmark sustainable development actions, including investment in low-carbon infrastructure, combating corruption, gender equality in the workplace, access to and strengthening of healthcare services in the least developed countries and more. As we look ahead to the next 15 years of global human development, it is clear that all sectors – public, private and voluntary – must find innovative ways to work together in partnership if the sustainable development goals are ever to be achieved.

4. Sustainability means protecting the planet as well as prosperity

The importance of environmental protection has long been recognized as critical for development, yet in the years running up to the adoption of the MDGs environmental experts and development experts often operated separately. The discussions on environmental and developmental priorities at times become ‘de-linked’ and, at worst, there could be a perception that economic growth and environmental protection were an either/or – a kind of trade-off or choice. This was not so during the development of the SDGs, which build firmly on the so-called Brundtland definition of sustainability, after the former Norwegian Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy Gro Harlem Brundtland, who explained that ‘sustainability or sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ In relation to resources, energy, food, clean water, clean air and the basic resources and services children need, this means that all children must have enough, forever. The SDGs explicitly recognize the threat posed to sustainability by a changing climate and its impact on children, through floods, landslides and typhoons, droughts and related natural disasters. Indeed, in 2014, 87 percent of all disasters were climate-related, occurring overwhelmingly in developing countries that are least equipped to deal with them (UNISDR, 2015). ¹ Children are almost always among the hardest hit, and it is predicted that every year for the next decade over 175 million children will be affected by natural disasters caused by climate change alone. As well as changing behaviours, developing technologies and patterns of investment to prevent climate change, SDG signatories recognize that children need the knowledge and life-saving skills that can support their survival and development in the event of a disaster and that quality education is critical to empowering children to live sustainable lives and to be agents of change, not simply passive victims. Sustainable development means investing in those who must carry the world in the future – sustainable development means investing in today’s children.

5. Peace matters

Perhaps one of the most horrifying statistics about the state of global development for children today is that 1 in 10 children now live in conflict-affected areas. An estimated 230 million children are affected by serious violence, fighting and war. The number rises steadily in the region around Syria and in other conflict zones, such as Yemen and South Sudan, where children cross lines of fire to go to school, risk being maimed or killed, and in some cases face forced abduction and recruitment into armed groups straight from the classroom. Although the number and nature of fragile and ‘failed’ states around the world is deeply worrying, we have also seen over the past 15 years that peaceful, reasonably well governed countries have tended to develop and prosper. After 2015, experts predict that the majority of those in extreme poverty will be those living in the most conflict-affected states and that some of the most critical factors affecting the escape from poverty will be good governance, institutions that build stability and concerted efforts at peace-building across societies. The inclusion of peace-building has been somewhat controversial during the development of the SDGs and is brand new as a global goal, but the goal was retained and endorsed by the UN General Assembly nonetheless.

Crucially, the SDGs contain a goal that is fundamental to the well-being and protection of children everywhere, including in countries not affected directly by conflict: goal 16.2 states that there must be an end to violence to children, in all its forms. For the first time ever, it has been recognized that all forms of maltreatment, be it abuse, exploitation, trafficking or any form of violence and torture against children, must end. In acknowledgement of the shocking fact that today, every 5 minutes, a child dies as a result of violence, while an estimated 120 million girls and 73 million boys have been victims of sexual violence and almost one billion children are subjected to physical punishment on a regular basis, this goal is a true landmark. The SDGs recognize that a world without violence will only be achieved when all children enjoy a childhood without violence.

The SDGs represent a historic opportunity for children and young people, and for the professionals, agencies and governments that serve them. The post-2015 outcome document framing the SDGs states boldly that ‘children and young women and men are critical agents of change’. To achieve the goals, the world is relying on children and young people to seize this opportunity. The SDGs were formally adopted last September 2015, and chart an ambitious vision for 2030, but they are not legally binding. Each state and all of its partners across the sectors will now have to decide how to implement the goals. Therefore, the role of young, active citizens, as innovators, participants and shapers of change, holding governments and businesses to account and leading the way themselves, will be absolutely pivotal in making that ambitious vision a reality.