Transforming Multilateral Diplomacy

Reviews

“The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 was a defining moment in United Nations history and no one is better placed than Ambassador Macharia Kamau to tell the story of how we achieved this transformative vision for a better world.” —Ban Ki-moon, Eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations

“An inside look at the drama of the negotiations, and the creation of a new UN development paradigm.” —Shannon Orr, Bowling Green State University

Table of Contents

1 SETTING THE STAGE

What Are the Sustainable Development Goals?

Time for a Change

A Quick Guide to UN Negotiations

The Journey Ahead

Twenty-First Century Challenges to Multilateralism

Rebalancing Economic and Political Power

The Millennium Development Goals

The Need for a Paradigm Shift

The Tipping Point: Rio+20 and the Birth of the SDGs

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

Back to New York: Rio+20 Follow-up

Electing the Co-chairs

Initial Challenges

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

4 UNCERTAIN BEGINNINGS

Playing the Long Game to Educate, Depoliticize and Level the Playing Field

The Stocktaking Process

Changing Alliances

Expanding Horizons

The Elephants in the Room

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

Reading the Room

State Actors

Non-State Actors

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

6 THE USE OF PROCESS AND DRAMA

A Bird’s Eye View of the SDG Negotiations

Strategies and Tactics

The End Game

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

7 THE BIRTH OF THE GOALS

Goals 1–6: Updating and Enhancing the MDGs

Moving beyond the MDGs: Energy, Economic Growth,

Employment and Equality for the New Agenda

Urbanization, Consumption Patterns, Climate

and the Environment

The Enabling Environment

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

8 PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER: THE SDGS AND THE POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

Beginning Anew

Changing Dynamics

The Politics of a Declaration

"Tweaking" the Targets

Means of Implementation and the Global Partnership: Almost a Disaster

Follow-up and Review: Another Elephant in the Room

The End Game

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

9 TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD

Launching the Goals

Ownership in Implementation

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

10 THE LEGACY OF THE OPEN WORKING GROUP ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Lessons Learned

Negotiating Processes Matter

About the Authors

Macharia Kamau, as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN, served as Co-Chair of the OWG on the SDGs and the Co-Facilitator of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. In 2014 he was awarded the Gold Medal Award for Environmental Diplomacy from the International Council of Environmental Law and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Pamela Chasek is professor of political science at Manhattan College. She is the executive editor of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, a reporting service on UN environment and development negotiations, and she reported from every meeting of the OWG on SDGs. She is the author and editor of Global Environmental Politics, The Roads from Rio, The Global Environment in the 21st Century, and Earth Negotiations.

David O’Connor served, from 2003 to 2015, as Chief of the Policy and Analysis Branch, Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN where he led a team of policy researchers who provided the analytical direction and substanceto the UN’s work on sustainable development, supporting the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Subject Categories

• Politics & International Relations
  • International Relations
    • International Organizations
  • International Politics
• Development Studies
  • Sustainable Development

BISAC Subject Codes/Headings:

POL000000

POLITICAL SCIENCE / General