Subscribing to the universal sustainable development goals is good, putting them into effect is even better. More than a year after the adoption of the United Nations 2030 Agenda (New York, September 2015), however, the EU still does not have a strategy for the implementation of its internal and external policies, said CONCORD, the largest network of European development NGOs, on Wednesday 16 November.
The report, “Sustainable Development – The Stakes could not be higher”, published by CONCORD, calls on the EU and its member states to move towards implementation by developing an overarching strategy for sustainable development. This strategy should be adopted by the end of the first quarter of 2017 and be immediately operational.
The strategy would help the EU and its member states pursue complex goals that are closely bound up in an interconnected world: it is impossible to address climate change without dealing with food insecurity, gender inequality, the rise in migration and mobility and in unsustainable economic growth.
It would also help both EU and member states ensure the consistency of their policies with the principles underpinning Agenda 2030. According to CONCORD, for the moment, they have a long way to go.
Food consumption, food production and migration, the NGOs believe, are the three areas where the EU must urgently transform its policies and practices – to encourage sustainable agriculture, end inequalities in the rights and control over land, seeds and other productive resources, encourage trade systems that allow developing countries to develop their own agricultural sector and local economy, and ensure truly democratic governance of food systems. Prerequisites for the achievement of the universal goal of “no hunger by 2030” which requires sustainable agriculture and reform of consumption and production models.
There needs also to be better understanding of the root causes of migration, better measurement of the deficit in protection afforded migrants and refugees so that it can be overcome, and development of a new, positive narrative projecting a different view of these vulnerable people, the report states.
Among the many recommendations contained in the report, the EU is urged to use the mid-term review of the 2014-2020 multi-annual financial framework to guarantee the necessary funding for the new strategy. CONCORD recommends, too, a transparent, robust system for monitoring progress achieved, based on a comprehensive range of indicators. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)