Guiding the Goals: Empowering Local Actors

The draft Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are intended to guide the post-2015 development agenda have many ambitious goals and targets. They seek both to meet needs, such as greatly reducing poverty, and to address regional and global ecological goals, including avoiding dangerous climate change. But they do not outline the changes needed in institutional structures, governance, and finance to achieve them. As with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), little attention is given to local government and local civil society, despite the fact that these are the most important actors for addressing most of the goals and targets. The data collection systems that are meant to monitor achievements also fail to serve and support local organizations and local action.