On 11 December 2014, the House of Lords is scheduled to debate the following motion: “that this House takes note of the case for establishing new global development goals in 2015”.
Global Development Goals in 2015 (406KB PDF)
On 11 December 2014, the House of Lords is scheduled to debate the following motion:
“that this House takes note of the case for establishing new global development goals in 2015”
In 2001, UN member states adopted eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at eradicating poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, improving health, and ensuring environmental sustainability. The goals were underpinned by a number of targets, most of which had a deadline of 2015. Several of the targets have already been met—most notably, the number of people living in extreme poverty (on less than $1.25 a day) has halved—but further improvements are still needed in many of the areas targeted by the MDGs.
The international community began work several years ago on developing a new framework of goals to replace the MDGs after the 2015 deadline. From September 2014, work on this “post-2015 development agenda” was brought together with a separate strand of work begun under the Rio+20 process to draw up a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs). It is expected that after a period of intergovernmental negotiation, one set of global goals will be adopted at a high-level UN summit in September 2015.
The UN General Assembly has adopted a proposed set of goals drawn up by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development (OWG) as the “main basis” for integrating sustainable development goals into the post-2015 development agenda. However, the OWG proposals have attracted some criticism for lacking a clear purpose and for including too many goals and targets. The UK Government would prefer to see no more than ten to twelve goals, compared to the 17 currently proposed by the OWG. The task of the intergovernmental process over the forthcoming year will be to achieve global consensus on both an overall framework and on individual goals. Efforts are also underway to bring about a ‘data revolution’ to improve the collection of the data used to monitor progress against the post-2015 targets.
Global Development Goals in 2015 (406KB PDF)
The UK is a signatory to the convention establishing an international claims commission for Ukraine. The commission would assess claims for compensation for damage and losses caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The House of Lords International Agreements Committee has broadly welcomed the convention, but also raised concerns about the scope and efficacy of the commission.
Recent tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina have raised concerns about stability and security in the country, particularly due to reports of external influence and recent secessionist rhetoric in Republika Srpska. This briefing outlines recent developments, international responses and the UK government’s position on Bosnia and Herzegovina ahead of a House of Lords debate on the subject.
Concerns have been raised about levels of welfare spending in the UK and increasing numbers of young people not in education, employment or training. This briefing sets out statistics, government policy and commentary on welfare and youth employment. This includes the government’s youth guarantee, its ‘Get Britain working’ policies and the interim report by Alan Milburn on young people and work.
