The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Through the 2030 Agenda, the countries of the world have committed themselves, beginning on 1 January 2016 and continuing until 2030, to ending poverty and hunger everywhere, combatting inequalities within and among countries, building peaceful, just, and inclusive societies, protecting human rights and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and into account different levels of national development and capacities.

The Agenda ensuring the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. The countries of the world have resolved to create conditions for inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all, taking consists of five sections:

- an introduction

- a political declaration

- a framework of goals (the 17 Global Goals and 169 targets)

- means of implementation

- a framework for follow-up and review.

The political declaration establishes the intention and vision behind the Agenda. It is characterised by a high level of ambition and a clear vision with regard to efforts to tackle global challenges, such as ending global poverty and promoting a sustainable future. It makes clear that sustainable development is crucial to our common future and that action in all three dimensions of sustainable development (the economic, environmental and social) must be coordinated. The political declaration confirms the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its subsequent conventions as a starting point for the new Agenda, and that human rights are universal, interdependent and indivisible.

The 17 Global Goals and 169 targets for sustainable development are universal, integrated and indivisible, taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities. The synergies and integrated nature of the Global Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is realised. Each government will decide how the Global Goals should be incorporated in national planning processes, policies and strategies.

Means of implementation

The means of implementation are key to realising the 2030 Agenda and are equally as important as the 17 Global Goals and 169 targets.

Individual States have primary responsibility to their citizens for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The international community has a particular and shared responsibility for countries facing the greatest challenges and those with the weakest institutions. Domestic resources should be the primary source of funding, which should be ensured through sustainable growth and a broader tax base, expansion of the formal economy, strengthened, effective and transparent institutions (not least for public financial management), control of the security sector and effective and transparent management of public funds. Global and national action to combat illegal capital flows and corruption is also needed. International tax reforms must also include the priorities of low-income countries. Individual States must take greater account of how their own tax system affects tax systems of low-income countries.

International trade is an engine for inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction, and can also help promote sustainable development in other ways. The 2030 Agenda will continue to promote a universal, rules-based, open, transparent, predictable, inclusive and non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as well as meaningful trade liberalisation.

The outcome document from the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) – the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – is an integral component in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Framework for follow-up and accountability

The 2030 Agenda establishes that the 17 Global Goals and the 169 targets are to lead to an end to poverty and to the achievement of sustainable development. They aim to realise the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality. To ensure that this is done, the 2030 Agenda states that follow-up and review processes at all levels are to incorporate a rights perspective and a gender equality perspective.

To support accountability, there will be systematic follow-up and review at national, regional and global level in accordance with the 2030 Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) will have a central role in monitoring follow-up and review at global level. The HLPF's recommendations will be based on consensus, and it will work with the General Assembly, ECOSOC and other relevant bodies and forums in accordance with existing mandates.

Coordinated follow-up of the Global Goals and the means of implementation will be important to implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Follow-up at national level will serve as the basis for follow-up at regional and global level. Global indicators are being developed to support this work.