To: 29/09/2015
Location: New York
The United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda will be held September 25-27, 2015 in New York and convened as a high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly. The process of arriving at the post-2015 development agenda has been member state-led with broad participation from major groups and other civil society stakeholders.
The post-2015 agenda will provide a new global framework for all countries to better focus, coordinate and integrate their efforts as they work towards sustainable development, while eradicating poverty in all its forms. The new 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) are universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN Member States are expected to use to frame their national development plans and policies over the next 15 years. The SDGs follow, and expand on, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were agreed by governments in 2000, and are due to expire at the end of this year.
By focusing on inclusive growth and transformation, the SDGs reflect the development aspirations of African countries better than the MDGs and they are well aligned with AfDB's Strategy for 2013-2022 that emphasizes the need for inclusive and green growth, in the quest for sustainable development and poverty eradication. The AfDB, along with other development partners, will be providing support to its Regional Member Countries in Africa in implementing the SDGs by mobilizing additional resources and providing technical assistance and policy advice. The Bank is also actively contributing to the development of the SDGs and raising the African voice in the discussions, including through a dedicated Africa Regional Report on SDGs jointly produced with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union. An AfDB delegation, headed by the President, will take an active role in the Post-2015 Summit's discussions in New York and beyond.
The UN Summit follows the Addis Ababa Financing for Development Conference in July 2015, where the broader development community and the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), including the AfDB, were called upon to enhance the leverage and multiplier effects of financing and provide innovative financing solutions in order to help countries to maximize their own resources. As an input to the conference, the AfDB co-authored a paper with other MDBs called "From Billion to Trillions", which affirms how the SDG goals are ambitious, demand equal ambition in using "billions" in official development assistance (ODA) and available development resources to attract, leverage and mobilize "trillions" in investments.
The Bank is committed to playing a catalytic role in mobilizing and leveraging funds for SDGs from varied sources by: i) assisting governments to scale up domestic resource mobilization and fight against illicit financial flows; ii) providing support to the private sector; and iii) creating platforms for financing infrastructure such as the Africa50.
