The eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were established in 2000 with the aim of coordinating global efforts around achievable, time-bound development targets. 15 years later, and the MDGs are nearing expiration. Acknowledging the need to continue those efforts, the international community-led by the United Nations-is on the verge of approving a Post-2015 Development Agenda which will guide the transition from the MDGs to the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, along with complementary objectives for the Asia Pacific region, specifically, were recently discussed by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) at the Asia and Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development Goals, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 21 - 22 May, 2015.
The IAEA was invited to participate in the UNESCAP Forum, and was represented by the Director of the Department of Technical Cooperation's (TC) Division for Asia and the Pacific, Ms. Najat Mokthar, and the Programme Planning Officer TCSPS, Ms. Susanne Nebel. The Forum was attended by more than 400 participants, including representatives of IAEA Member States, the United Nations and other international organisations and civil society.
The purpose of participating in the Forum was to gain insight into the transition processes from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By understanding this transition process, IAEA Member States will be better-positioned to inform and shape a viable and relevant regional programme which supports the major sustainable development priorities of Member States in the Asia & the Pacific region.
The Forum also provided a platform for partnership-building at the 'Pavilion of Partners.' The Department of Technical Cooperation had secured an exhibition booth in the Pavilion and presented technically and developmentally relevant information about TC projects and their contribution to the achievement of the sustainable development priorities of Member States.
Networking and partner-engagement were also prioritized by the Forum-IAEA staff in attendance were able to present the technical cooperation programme, which is a unique mechanism within the United Nations system as it combines specialized technical and developmental competencies.
The Forum emphasized the need for a regional mechanism for monitoring and accountability of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and highlighted the importance of high-quality statistics for informing policies and programmes to effectively achieve the SDGs. A lack of adequate monitoring and accountability mechanisms has been widely recognized as one of the fault lines of the MDGs. Through regional and national projects, the TC programme will play a role in collecting evidence and data, and strengthening national statistical systems for the implementation of the SDGs.
This attention on development indicators and institutional capacity-building is of particular relevance to the IAEA. The Agency's technical cooperation has long had a focus on using nuclear-related technology in order to better measure and understand, for example, environmental processes such as water pollution and land degradation, human nutrition, and agricultural productivity. Additionally, the IAEA has a network of national partner institutions in the Asia Pacific region, and elsewhere, with whom it has been working to develop capacity in these areas.
The creation of mechanisms for monitoring and assessing progress towards development targets provides an opportunity to link many of these national technical institutions with other similar bodies in their region. The IAEA, as an agency that links science and development issues, can both coordinate the development of regional technical capacity and facilitate the production and delivery of key information for use by national and regional development actors. In this way, the IAEA can use its unique strengths and institutional relationships to help ensure that science is a key input to sustainable development.