Once in a Generation

IMF Blog, May 29, 2015

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Once in a Generation

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Bibliographic details

• Authors: Jeff Hayden
• Published: May 29, 2015

Global calendar and objectives

• World leaders will come together three times—in July, September, and December—to press for progress in the fight against poverty and to forge partnerships in support of better-quality life around the world.
• July: government officials and representatives from civil society organizations, donor groups, and the private sector will meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to secure the financing needed to lift millions out of extreme poverty.
• September: the global community assembles in New York to review progress under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expire this year, and to adopt new ones—the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—that map out development through 2030.
• December: participants at the United Nations summit on climate change in Paris will work toward a set of environmental targets aimed at ensuring a sustainable future.

Scale and debate over the SDGs

• The proposed SDGs comprise 17 in total with 169 subtargets.
• The complexity of the proposed SDGs has prompted some critics to question their value.
• IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde characterizes this year's alignment of events as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to focus minds, forge partnerships, and find solutions.

Focus and contributions in this issue of F&D

• The issue takes stock of the world's development agenda and examines how to best seize the opportunity presented by the 2015 global meetings.
• Charles Kenny, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, assesses progress on the development agenda since 2000 and argues that:
  • the world needs strong deals in Addis Ababa on financing and in Paris on climate to deliver sustainable progress.
• Montfort Mlachila, René Tapsoba, and Sampawende Tapsoba develop a special index for measuring growth quality to help guide policymakers.

Other featured topics in the issue

• Ensuring access to clean water, especially for the world’s poorest.
• A Picture This infographic on the transition from the MDGs to the SDGs.
• The economic toll of terrorism.
• The costs of human trafficking.
• The expansion of regional banks in Africa.
• The economic aftermath of the Arab Spring.
• How the euro area could benefit from German infrastructure spending.
• Efforts to revamp over-the-counter derivatives markets.
• Youth unemployment.
• A profile by IMF Publisher and former F&D editor-in-chief Jeremy Clift of Hélène Rey, professor of economics at the London Business School.

Source: Once in a Generation — F&D, Jeff Hayden, May 29, 2015.

References

• Christine Lagarde reminds us in this issue
• http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2015/06/index.htm
• progress on the development agenda since 2000
• the task of measuring growth quality
• ensuring access to clean water
• Picture This
• toll of terrorism
• the costs of human trafficking
• the expansion of regional banks in Africa
• the economic aftermath of the Arab Spring
• how the euro area could benefit from German infrastructure spending
• efforts to revamp over-the-counter derivatives markets
• youth unemployment
• Hélène Rey