T

his year'€™s 70th session of the UN General Assembly will start on a high note with the Summit to Adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda, on Sept. 25-27.

It is a historic event to be attended by 108 heads of state and 50 heads of government including Pope Francis. A number of goodwill ambassadors such as the singer Shakira and Nobel Peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai will also be present.

The summit will adopt the new UN development agenda called Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an agenda that all UN member states are committed to implementing until 2030, with poverty reduction as its overarching objective and sustainable development as the core engine to drive the transformation.

The historic agenda, to begin on New Year'€™s Day, addresses inequality between countries and within countries; the root causes of poverty; and calls for more efficient and sustainable approaches for development. The agenda reflects the will and commitment of the international community to solve common challenges and seek solutions through a partnership.

On the agenda are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which expand on the Millennium Development Goals and will continue the unfinished work of the MDGs due to end in 2015. The new agenda provides a framework comprising development goals that integrate economic, social and environmental components known as the three pillars of sustainable development. Another differentiating characteristic of the 2030 agenda is the pledge to leave no one behind.

The SDGs give us a sense of what the world could be if the chronic challenges that have plagued humanity for decades were answered through genuine action. There is a need for adequate financing for development, fair trade, capacity building and technology transfer, known as the means of implementation (MoI). Global support through the MoI includes financing for development, infrastructure development, a technology facilitation mechanism for sustainable development coordinated under the UN.

While the MDGs emphasized government-to-government partnership, the 2030 agenda invites diverse actors to contribute to its implementation including civil society and the private sector, which makes the 2030 agenda the most inclusive and comprehensive development agenda ever conceived by the UN.

Indonesia was actively involved at every stage. We worked to achieve several important decisions, through the Group of 77 and China, on the modalities and parameters of the SDGs, the related open working group on SDGs, and intergovernmental expert committee on Sustainable Development Financing. Then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono chaired a high-level panel of eminent persons on the post-2015 development agenda with the president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

We took the initiative to form a like-minded group that strengthened our negotiating position and ensured that Indonesia'€™s concerns were reflected in the agenda, including mitigating national disasters, women and children, sustainable cities, use of genetic resources and financial inclusion.

Indonesia consistently promoted the concept of sustainable development with equity that eventually became part of the normative framework of the 2030 agenda. Indonesia was also successful in integrating leading issues including food security and better nutrition, health, gender equity, marine and fisheries cooperation along with protection of biodiversity including sustainable forest management, climate change and good governance.

Various stakeholders were involved, mainly civil society and academics. The Foreign Ministry and the National Development Planning Agency spearheaded consultations at the regional and global level and also coordinated a national consultation forum to put together Indonesia'€™s view on the SDGs.

What are the next steps after the adoption of the 2030 agenda? Implementation, implementation, implementation!

We should also expect road bumps and obstacles ahead. The first of many difficult tasks that every country must figure out will be the integration of the agenda within their national context. Another huge task is to immediately realize the global commitments.

The responsibility to make the 2030 agenda a reality belongs to all of us '€” countries and stakeholders alike. We all have a stake in realizing a clean planet, prosperity for all, peace and a solid global partnership.

That is the essence of the sustainable development agenda for the next 15 years.
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The writer is Indonesia'€™s permanent representative at the UN in New York. The views expressed are his own.