As the 2015 target date for reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, a wide range of activities are being undertaken by UN Member States, the UN system, civil society organizations, academia, research institutions and others on identifying the shape and priorities of a post-2015 development agenda.

The MDGs encapsulate eight globally agreed concrete goals, with time-bound targets and indicators for measuring progress in the areas of: poverty alleviation, education, gender equality and empowerment of women, child and maternal health, reducing HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases, environmental sustainability, and building a Global Partnership for Development.

At the 2010 High-level Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly to review progress towards the MDGs, Governments called not only for accelerated progress towards achieving the MDGs, but also for new thinking on ways to advance the UN development agenda beyond 2015.

This is the origin of the discussions now underway on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. There is wide consensus that the United Nations is the most inclusive and comprehensive platform for putting a global development agenda together and for bringing to the table the views of all Governments and a range of other stakeholders, from civil society, the private sector, academia and research institutes, to philanthropic foundations and international institutions.

In addition, the Rio+20 Conference established a 30-member Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In September 2014, the Group submitted its report (A/68/970) to the UN General Assembly, which adopted a resolution deciding that the report would be the main basis for integrating the SDGs in the post-2015 development agenda.