The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approved in September 2015 by the UN General Assembly could lead to significant poverty reduction, according to a panel of experts moderated by Nathan Associates Mike Blakeley.

The panel was held May 23 at the annual conference of the Society for International Development, Achieving Impact: Sustainability, Scale, and Inclusion, in Washington, D.C. Panel members were Agosto Lopez-Claros, Director of the Global Indicators Group at the World Bank Group; Casey Dunning, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Global Development; and Ariel Meyerstein, Vice President of Labor Relations at the U.S. Council for International Business.

The panel examined

• the effectiveness of global initiatives on poverty reduction,
• the likelihood of reaching certain of the 169 targets identified in the SDGs,
• the potential of the SDGs to influence national development plans and corporate business strategies, and
• what the greatest challenges are for meeting SDG 1 No Poverty by 2030.

The panel audience of more than 200 development practitioners raised questions about who in the United Nations is leading the SDG effort and how governments are sourcing funds to pursue accomplishment of the SDGs.

The panelists agreed that vaguely written targets and lack of data will make measuring the success of SDG implementation among the greatest challenges to their achievement by 2030.

The Nathan Associates hosted panel was one of eight selected for presentation during the one-day conference (of 100 proposed to SID organizers). Nathan proposed the panel as the firm considers how to incorporate relevant SDGs, especially Gender Equality (SDG 5), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17), into its own work.