Press release
30 May 2013
Ministry for Foreign Affairs

For almost a year now, Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson has worked on the UN High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, mandated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to present recommendations and proposals for the next development agenda that will replace the current Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015.

Today, the Panel launched its report, containing a number of radical proposals, and presented it to the Secretary-General. Ms Carlsson has mainly focused on issues such as democracy and effective governance, gender equality and freedom from violence - issues that are often controversial in international contexts. The Panel's report contains illustrative proposals for development goals, and all these areas are covered by goals of their own.


"We have had frank debates, and I have chosen to focus on areas that often encounter resistance around the world. I am therefore pleased that the panel was finally able to agree on strong language on, for example, political freedom, freedom from corruption and the importance of sexual and reproductive rights. It's a great victory, certainly for Sweden, but above all for people around the world living in poverty and exclusion," said Ms Carlsson.
Some of new areas for the panel's proposals are:

  • More jobs and equitable growth
  • Improved political governance and effective institutions
  • Stable and peaceful societies
  • Sustainable management of natural resources

The Panel's proposed illustrative targets also contain sub-goals such as eliminating child marriage in the world, ensuring the protection of women's right to inherit property, sign contracts, set up businesses and open bank accounts, and ensuring everyone's sexual and reproductive health and rights. The Panel would like to see the next development agenda apply to every country in the world, integrate both the issues of poverty and sustainable development into the same framework, and seek to completely eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.
Minister for International Development Cooperation is available for interviews on the Panel's work and report. For more information about the Panel, visit www.post2015hlp.org or contact the Press Secretary to the Minister for International Development Cooperation. The report will be available at government.se/mfa after 21.00 today, in connection with its release.


Contact Evin Khaffaf
Press Secretary
+46 70 283 95 97
email to Evin Khaffaf
distributed by