About the Project

From March 2013 to July 2014,  an Open Working Group (OWG) of 70 member states sharing 30 seats negotiated and put forth a proposal for Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. Due to high demand, member states were grouped into troikas of two, three, or four countries, based on region, but not necessarily on national interests. Many of the notes used to create this tool were taken during the OWG negotiations, so there is a focus on the most active and vocal countries from those sessions. Of course, other countries that were not formally a part of the OWG have also participated in the conversations, and the list of countries included in this tool has expanded accordingly. On July 19, 2014, the OWG voted by acclamation to  move their proposal of 17 goals and 169 targets forward to the General Assembly. After the vote, some countries expressed remaining reservations with the document. Despite these reservations and because of them, there is significant controversy among member states about whether they should reopen the OWG outcome document and modify the goals and targets throughout 2015, or whether they should leave the document as is because of the balance that was achieved through the OWG. In September 2014, the General Assembly decided that the OWG’s report would be “the main basis for integrating the SDGs” into the post-2015 agenda, while other inputs would be considered during the 2015 negotiations.

Understanding that member state positions can and likely will evolve, we have made efforts to include the event and date for comments made after the close of the OWG. Some examples of these events include the PGA Stocktaking sessions on September 11 and 12, 2014; the UN General Assembly high-level week on September 22-24, 2014; side events as well as formal committee meetings. We expect the conversation to evolve throughout the formal negotiations taking place beginning January 2015.