From MDGs to SDGs: Reconnecting economic and human development

In some respects, 2015 marks a turning point for development: a transition from a period when development efforts focused on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to a period that will focus on a post-2015 development agenda covering a broader and much more ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The outcome of the discussions under way for such an agenda and the accompanying SDGs will play a major role in shaping the context and discourse of development over the next 15 years – a role even more prominent than that of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) since their adoption in 2000. A key issue will be the relationship between human development and economic development. This connection is discussed in the present chapter, as follows. Section A explains the interdependence of human and economic development, and how they relate to the MDGs and the planned SDGs. Section B defines structural transformation and sustainability, and shows how they are linked to development and the SDGs. Section C analyses the major requirements to meet the latter sustainably.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development