IIED's work on the post-2015 agenda

It took three years of international negotiations to agree the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The scope and ambition of the SDGs resonate with IIED's work for a fairer and greener world.

Article, 27 February 2017

IIED's animation, "Bringing the SDGs to life: real change for real people", is designed to communicate what the SDGs are, why they are needed, and why we need to take collective action.

When the United Nations formally adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, it was a promise to begin 15 years of transformative change for the world.

The SDGs reflect the vision of sustainable development that IIED has pursued over the last 40 years, and IIED is also working with partners on several initiatives that explicitly explore the potential of the SDGs and related instruments to accelerate progress on sustainable development at national and local levels.

IIED has been engaging with the aspirations captured in the 17 SDGs in a variety of ways. In the run-up to the United Nations formally adopting the SDGs, IIED released an animation about the goals and their potential to transform the lives of people round the globe. The three-and-a-half minute film was designed to communicate the ambitions and universal reach of the goals, and to encourage citizens around the world to support them.

The animation explains the SDGs by focusing on the lives of five individuals, and shows how the 17 goals have the potential to address universal concerns. Released in July 2015, the animation urged people to hold global leaders to account on delivering the goals.

We designed the animation to be easily used and shared. We also provided a compressed and downloadable version to enable the animation to be shown in schools and other locations where there was no online access. These decisions paid off: the SDG animation was translated into many languages and shown in countries ranging from Korea to Iceland

Explaining the SDGs

IIED also recorded a series of video interviews on the theme "Understanding the SDGs". These short films featured researchers and partners analysing the aspirations of the SDGs and the challenges of bringing them into reality. You can watch the videos below, or see the complete playlist on IIED's YouTube channel.

The individual videos can also be viewed as follows:

The breadth and range of the 2030 Agenda also finds echoes across IIED's research work. 

Our forest team has looked at how forests can be best protected through the SDG process and is working to help install forest-related targets and indicators into the post-2015 development framework. 

Our Human Settlements research group is addressing the challenge of making cities resilient in the face of climate change (SDG 11) as well as how best to finance improved water and sanitation in urban environments (SDG 6).

Our Shaping Sustainable Markets research group has set out proposals for action on global fisheries (SDG 14).

We have also developed our research focusing on climate finance and how this overlaps with and supports development finance.