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Week 6 - Time to "unpack" concepts (Together 2030)

6 June 2016

When all Members of the UN gathered in New York in September 2015 to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development they not only committed to an ambitious framework comprising 17 SDGs but also broke new ground in terms of focusing on inclusion and equality.

This is the case with the concept of “leaving no one behind”, reaffirmed in several paragraphs of the outcome document (4 26, 48 and 72), closely connected to another innovation: the focus on reaching the “furthest behind first”. As implementation starts, it is time to “unpack” those concepts and translate them into policies, programmes, projects and services that target all people and, at the same time, are tailored to reach the most vulnerable and marginalized first.

“Unpacking” “leaving no one behind” and “reaching the furthest behind first” demand a revolution in the way progress is measured. The “average” approach, which was the standard for the MDGs cannot be applied to the SDGs which were drafted based on universality, applying to all Member States and to all people.

Civil society and stakeholders have a role to play in supporting Member States in making the ambition a reality. For this reason, inclusion and participation of civil society and stakeholders will be critical at all levels and phases of implementation and follow up of the 2030 Agenda. Together 2030 will be submitting written inputs to the HLPF soon with concrete proposals on how governments can make “leaving no one behind” a reality.
United Nations