In September 2000, building upon a decade of major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together at United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets - with a deadline of 2015 - that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals.
Positioning Early Childhood Development in the Post-2015 Development Framework
2015 will be a watershed year for the global development community. It is the year when the current commitments under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education For All (EFA) movement expire. It is also the year when, inter alia, the specific follow-up work to the Rio+20 Summit comes to full fruition (The Future We Want) and the negotiations on a new global agreement to address climate change will be finalised (The Durban Platform).
It will therefore be a year when new development commitments for the post-2015 period will be agreed, (a) as a follow-up to the MDGs and EFA, and (b) to implement the Sustainable Development Goals agreed as a result of the Rio+20 follow-up processes.
The Consultative Group is in the process of assessing this 2015 development nexus from the perspective of the early childhood development (ECD) community, with a view to determining where there are opportunities for positioning early childhood development as one of the priority issues on the post-2015 development agenda.
Positioning Early Childhood Development in the Post-2015 Development Framework - a background paper provides an overview of the influences and processes that are shaping the priorities on the post-2015 development agenda. It examines the evidence base on ECD, in the context of the emerging priorities, with a view to identifying opportunities for positioning ECD on the post-2015 development agenda. Such opportunities will have to demonstrate that effective ECD can contribute to progress on that issue and hence be considered as a goal, target or indicator; and that there are data available which can be used to establish a baseline, as well as for monitoring progress on the ECD contribution in the future. A communication/advocacy strategy is currently being drafted and will be posted shortly.
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality