Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals: A transformational agenda for an insecure world

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal set of seventeen goals and 169 targets, with accompanying indicators, which were agreed by UN member states to frame their policy agendas for the fifteen-year period from 2015 to 2030. Written by three authors who have been engaged in the development of the SDGs from the beginning, this book offers an insider view of the process and a unique entry into what will be seen as one of the most significant negotiations and global policy agendas of the twenty-first century.

The book reviews how the SDGs were developed, what happened in key meetings and how this transformational agenda, which took more than three years to negotiate, came together in September 2015. It dissects and analyzes the meetings, organizations and individuals that played key roles in their development. It provides fascinating insights into the subtleties and challenges of high-level negotiation processes of governments and stakeholders, and into how the SDGs were debated, formulated and agreed. It is essential reading for all interested in the UN, sustainable development and the future of the planet and humankind.

Felix Dodds is a Senior Fellow at the Global Research Institute and a Senior Affiliate at the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina, USA, and also an Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute, Boston, USA. Felix has edited or written fourteen books on sustainable development and UN-related issues and was Chair of the 2011 UN DPI NGO Conference 'Sustainable Societies Responsive Citizens'. From 1992 to 2012 he was Executive Director of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future.

Ambassador David Donoghue is Ireland's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, USA. He co-facilitated, with the Permanent Representative of Kenya, the negotiations at the UN which produced the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He also co-facilitated, with the Permanent Representative of Jordan, the negotiations which agreed the outcome of the High Level Meeting on large movements of refugees and migrants held at the UN on 19 September 2016.

Jimena Leiva-Roesch is a Senior Policy Analyst at the International Peace Institute. Previously she was a diplomat for the Permanent Mission of Guatemala to the United Nations in New York, USA. She was a lead negotiator for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and for climate change. She offers hands-on training on multilateral negotiations to diplomats and students worldwide. Jimena was an active member of the Security Council team when Guatemala was an elected member in 2012–2013.