Following the Sustainable Development Goals Summit this past September, the U.N. published a guidance paper to identify pathways to achieving the SDGs by their target date of 2030. But if those goals are to be met, even partially, the U.N. must also rethink the political underpinnings of international development cooperation.
Last week, the U.N. Security Council established a multinational armed mission to Haiti that many fear will end up being yet another botched intervention there. In fact, the mission has several features that ought to reassure skeptics. Whether it can live up to its full potential will depend on a number of factors yet to be determined.
Ahead of next week’s SDG Summit, the outlook for realizing the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is discouraging. Recent cascading crises threaten to reverse the progress made on several goals. They have also exacerbated one of the most significant challenges to realizing the SDGs: financing gaps.