What are the options for Millennium Development Goals 2.0?

The debate on what, if anything might replace the MDGs in 2015 is starting to emerge.

One might imagine three stylized options – more of the same, something that builds on the MDGs, or something completely new. The first option, could be called MDGs 2020/2025 and would simply extending the deadline of 2015, perhaps with some minor changes to the indicators and goals in order to reflect that new timeline.

A second approach could be called MDGs+ and would still be a goal-led framework, but either set by national governments through deliberative processes, or by a combination of a streamlined set of global indicators (child nutrition, infant mortality and primary/secondary enrolment rates) with actual indicators and targets set by national governments via deliberative processes.

A third approach could be called a ‘One World’ or ‘Global Challenges’ approach and would be much bolder and more ambitious. It would build a global agreement binding both north and south, with poverty targets for the south and sustainable consumption targets for the north. This would thus build on the oft-neglected MDG 8 on global partnerships, and provide the basis for a genuinely new multilateralism to deal with global development in a more hostile climate. It could focus on global public goods and global issues, of which extreme poverty and climate-resilient development are central, or it could focus on the national dimensions in development in both north and south. Richard Manning, former OECD-DAC chair and MDG architect, in his review of MDG impacts refers to this as a ‘One World’ approach.

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