Sustainable Development Challenges

1 World Economic and Social Survey 2013 Sustainable Development ChallengesE/2013/50/Rev. 1S T/ESA /34 4 Department of Economic and Social AffairsUnited NationsNew York, 2013 DESAThe Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat is a vital interface between global policies in the economic, social and environmental spheres and national action. The Department works in three main interlinked areas: (i) it compiles, generates and analyses a wide range of economic, social and environmental data and information on which States Members of the United Nations draw to review common problems and to take stock of policy options; (ii) it facilitates the negotiations of Member States in many intergovernmental bodies on joint courses of action to address ongoing or emerging global Challenges .

2 And (iii) it advises interested Governments on the ways and means of translating policy frameworks developed in United Nations conferences and summits into programmes at the country level and, through technical assistance, helps build national of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with 1S T/ESA /34 4 ISBN 978 -92-1-10 9167- 0eISBN 978-92-1-056082-5 United Nations publicationSales No. @ United Nations, 2013 All rights reservediiiPrefaceThe present edition of the World Economic and Social Survey rightly focuses on the ma-jor issue of our time: Sustainable Development . As we work to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and shape a global vision for the period beyond, we must evaluate progress and look ahead to emerging global goal of halving poverty was achieved in 2010.

3 We have seen remark-able gains in access to improved sources of water, the fight against malaria and tuberculo-sis, improved conditions for slum dwellers in cities, enrolment in primary education and the advancement of women. At the same time, we must acknowledge that progress has been uneven and insufficient. Environmental sustainability is under threat, with accelerating growth in global greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. More than a billion people still live in extreme poverty. Nearly all of them suffer from hunger. Eradicating poverty must remain central to the international Development agenda. The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) reaf-firmed commitment to Sustainable Development and adopted a framework for action and comprehensive follow-up.

4 The World Economic and Social Survey 2013 serves as a valuable resource as we look towards translating the outcome of Rio+20 into concrete actions. In particular, it offers in-depth analyses of some of the cross-sectoral issues identified at the Conference, notably urban sustainability, food and nutrition security and access to modern energy services for all. Eradicating extreme poverty, promoting Sustainable consumption and pro-duction, and managing the planet s natural resource base for the benefit of all are the overarching Challenges of Sustainable Development . I commend the World Economic and Social Survey 2013 and emphasize its value to all those seeking a solid understanding of these major issues which will underpin our progress towards the future we KI-MOON Secretary-GeneralivAcknowledgementsThe World Economic and Social Survey is the annual flagship publication on major develop-ment issues prepared by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat (UN/DESA).

5 The Survey was prepared under the general supervision and direction of Rob Vos, former Director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division (DPAD) of UN/DESA, and Willem van der Geest, Chief of the Development Strategy and Policy Unit of DPAD. The core team at DPAD included Diana Alarc n, Nicole Hunt, S. Nazrul Islam, Alex Julca, Marco V. S nchez, Oliver Schwank, Sergio Vieira and Eduardo Zepeda. Administrative support was provided by Lydia Gatan. Michael Brodsky of the Department of General Assembly Affairs and Conference Management copy-edited the original manu-script. Israel Machado of DPAD and Ramona Kohrs and Jose Tatad of the Department of Public Information provided bibliographic contributions were also made by Chantal Line Carpentier and Richard Alex Roehrl of the Division for Sustainable Development (DSD) of UN/DESA and by Shari Spiegel of the Financing for Development (FfD) Office of UN/DESA.

6 We gratefully acknowledge the background research contributions of Mart n Cicowiez, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Mark Howells, Helena Molin Valdes, Jos Antonio Ocampo, Matteo Pedercini, Vladimir Popov, John Toye, Tom van der Voorn and David Woodward. Substantive feedback was also received from Rodolfo Lacy, Jorge Nunez, Paulo Saad, David Satterthwaite and Claudia Sheinbaum. Further thanks are due to the participants of several workshops, organized to facilitate the preparation of this Survey, for the insights they provided. They include, apart from the contributors mentioned above, Jorge Bravo, Barney Cohen, Sarah Cook, Barry Herman, Pingfan Hong, Bela Hovy, Ronald Lee, Eduardo Lopez Moreno, Deepak Nayyar, David O Connor, Elina Palm, Jonas Rabinovitch, Hamid Rashid, Nikhil Seth, John Shilling, Maximo Torero and John overall guidance was provided by Shamshad Akhtar, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development at UN/DESA.

7 OverviewGlobal Sustainable Development Challenges post-2015In September 2000, world leaders adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration1 which provided the basis for the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals. A global consensus was successfully forged around the importance of poverty reduction and human Development . Since then, the global community has managed to uplift a large segment of 1 See General Assembly resolution 55 yThe world is faced with Challenges in all three dimensions of Sustainable develop-ment economic, social and environmental. More than 1 billion people are still living in extreme poverty, and income inequality within and among many countries has been rising; at the same time, unsustainable consumption and production patterns have resulted in huge economic and social costs and may endanger life on the planet.

8 Achieving Sustainable Development will require global actions to deliver on the legitimate aspiration towards further economic and social progress, requiring growth and employment, and at the same time strengthening environ - mental protection. ySustainable Development will need to be inclusive and take special care of the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. Strategies need to be ambitious, action-oriented and collaborative, and to adapt to different levels of Development . They will need to systemically change consumption and production patterns, and might entail, inter alia, significant price corrections; encourage the preservation of natural endow-ments; reduce inequality; and strengthen economic governance.

9 YThe World Economic and Social Survey 2013 aims towards contributing to the deliberations on Sustainable Development with a focus on three important cross-sectoral issues: Sustainable cities, food security and energy transformation. While the entire range of thematic areas identified for action and follow-up in section V of the outcome document of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development , entitled The future we want (General Assembly resolution 66/288, annex), cannot be covered comprehensively in this Survey, highlighting three of the cross-sectoral issues may hopefully contribute to the addressing of Sustainable de-velopment Challenges in the follow-up to the Conference.

10 ViWorld Economic and Social Survey 2013the poor and vulnerable. The world reached the poverty target five years ahead of the 2015 deadline. In developing regions, the proportion of people living on less than $ a day fell from 47 per cent in 1990 to 22 per cent in 2010. About 700 million fewer people lived in conditions of extreme poverty in 2010 compared with 1990. Still, results fall short of international expectations and of the global targets set to be reached by the 2015 dead-line. It remains imperative that the international community takes bold and collaborative actions to accelerate progress in achieving the Millennium Development of current Development strategies will not suffice to achieve Sustainable Development beyond 2015.