ONE celebrates adoption of historic new Global Goals for Sustainable Development

193 countries have committed to ambitious new plan to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030

UNITED NATIONS – ONE, a global campaigning and advocacy organization of 7 million members, joined the world in celebrating the adoption of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development in New York on Friday. The 17 new Global Goals were negotiated by leaders from 193 nations with the aim of fighting inequality, protecting our planet, and ending extreme poverty by 2030. The historic Global Goals build on the success of the Millennium Development Goals, which helped cut malaria deaths by more than half, reduced new HIV infections by 40 percent, and contributed to a worldwide decline in extreme poverty of 50 percent.

Michael Elliott, the ONE Campaign’s president and CEO, said the following:

“The adoption of the Global Goals is a truly historic occasion, amounting to the world’s biggest promise to itself since the global settlement at the end of World War II. Ours can be the generation that ends extreme poverty and fights inequality; and the last to be threatened by climate change. That amounts to both an audacious challenge and an incredible opportunity.

“The Global Goals will provide a critical set of priorities for global development over the next 15 years. They acknowledge that no person should be forced to live in hunger or die of a preventable disease, and that poverty hits women and girls hardest. The Goals reflect a shared commitment to real partnership — a more sophisticated approach to global development than the world has ever seen. This is a once-in-a-generation moment that the world cannot afford to squander. With the world’s population due to soar in the next few decades — especially in vulnerable regions — failing to achieve the Global Goals will mean that today’s difficult problems will become tomorrow’s impossible ones.

“We know that words alone won’t end extreme poverty. It’s what people do with those words that matters, and whether those words are used to hold those same governments to account. It’s going to take hard work to turn these aspirations into reality, as well as an unprecedented global focus on better data and on making sure that leaders are held accountable for what they promise.

“When world leaders return to their home countries, they need to make sure that their own people know about the goals. A global system of public national report cards should be developed to allow citizens to monitor progress and make sure that the promises made in the Global Goals are promises kept.

“The world can do this. It was Nelson Mandela who said that, ‘sometimes, it falls upon a generation to be great.’ We can be that generation. We can fulfill his dream, and we can make extreme poverty history.”