On July 31, 2012, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Center for American Progress Chair John Podesta as one of 26 members to the U.N. High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. In anticipation of the expiration of the current Millennium Development Goals—the shared global antipoverty targets cosigned by all U.N. member states—the panel is tasked with advising the secretary-general and U.N. member states on an ambitious global development agenda beyond 2015.
As the panel’s U.S. representative, Podesta is closely engaged in seeking a framework that builds upon the strong work of the current goals and incorporates agreed-upon gaps in a new agenda. John Norris, Executive Director of CAP’s Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative, and his staff are supporting Podesta in this important task.
The Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative is broadly engaging with the U.S. government; civil society; the private sector; implementing non-governmental organizations, or NGOs; the think tank community; the poorest of the poor; and philanthropy as to their aspirations and concerns regarding the work of the High-Level Panel. The Initiative is also conducting targeted research and analysis to support Podesta in this role, recognizing this historic opportunity to advance progress in creating a more prosperous, connected, and resilient world.
For further reading on the Millennium Development Goals and the Post-2015 process, please see: