Well begun but half done: Zero draft of the post-2015 outcome document has best of intentions yet many gaps on things that matter
Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities. -Pope Francis

The Global Call to Action against Poverty, GCAP, welcomes the Zero Draft prepared by the co-facilitators of the post-2015 inter-governmental negotiations, David Donoghue of Ireland and Macharia Kamau of Kenya and released on June 2nd, 2015. It is a document well-begun. While the GCAP welcomes the focus on “call to action”, we also reiterate the need to ensure that the ambition and commitments necessary to accomplish a “transformative” agenda for the next fifteen years is well-established and central to the global development goals.

With an aspiration to define the agenda for global action for the next fifteen years, the revised zero draft presents the proposed set of SDGs and attendant targets along with a theoretical underpinning to have a set of universal, transformative goals aiming to “leave no one behind”. The revised draft document attempts to address the longstanding criticism of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by foregrounding the proposed SDGs with a preamble, shared principles (paras 10 and 11) and a vision for transforming the world (para 15).

It is a 44 page document which continues to maintain the ambition with the draft declaration with all the 17 goals and the means of implementation and follow-up and review mechanisms (at multiple levels). That it did not let ambition fall at the altar of pragmatism and geo-political intransience deserves credit at the outset.

GCAP reactive on zero draft on Post 2015