In my opinion, the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals is the most important thing that the United Nations has done in this century., and a great example of what can be achieved when you are clear about what you want. Colombia was very clear about what it wanted and that is why it was able to play a decisive role in the conception of the Sustainable Development Goals (the so-called SDGs), which became the world’s agenda at the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
This book, written by its main protagonists, Paula Caballero and Patti Londoño, is the story of how, through a meticulous and effective work of multilateral diplomacy, what very few, if not no one, thought was possible was achieved: put the world in agreement around a new development paradigm.
The story begins in February 2011, when our Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín, accompanied by her deputy minister Patti Londoño and Paula Caballero, the director of environmental, economic and social affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, proposed to me the idea of replacing the Millennium Goals by much more ambitious ones, involving developed countries and having an important environmental component.
I remember that Paula pricked my ego by telling me “President, this is your great opportunity to lead something truly transcendental on a global level.” The idea seemed great to me, and I did not hesitate to give it the green light and all my support. There Paula and Patti began to work like true ants, always with the unconditional support of the Chancellor.
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Every head of state is concerned about his legacy. In my case, I am concerned that the peace agreement that ended a war of more than 50 years with the FARC, the oldest and most powerful guerrilla group in the continent, has overshadowed other important achievements of my mandate. It is hardly natural, due to the national and international resonance of that event. Unprecedented advances in economic and social indicators have remained in the background, such as the reduction of poverty, extreme poverty and even inequality measured by the Gini coefficient; the decrease in unemployment to single digits; the infrastructure revolution; ambitious environmental policy to protect our extraordinary biodiversity and combat climate change; joining the OECD; the digital connectivity of all municipalities; free public education up to grade 11; an international position and respect never before achieved by Colombia, or having made health a fundamental right, to just mention some of the most important.
The government team –because everything was the product of teamwork– can feel very satisfied with the results. The passage of time will dissipate the fog produced by the disastrous political polarization that shakes Colombia – and the entire world – and the facts, the figures, the evidence will remain.
As always, much remained to be done. But there is no doubt that the country in 2018 was much better than in 2010as it must also be recognized that the country in 2010 was better than in 2002.
That is what every president should aspire to: to leave a better country than the one he received, without clinging to power, as happens so often. Unfortunately, Many of the social and economic achievements obtained in the first two decades of this century were erased at a stroke by the disastrous combination of the pandemic and a bad government.
What no one can erase, and what will remain forever in the history books as part of the legacy, next to the peace agreement, is the initiative promoted by Colombia – recounted in this book – to create the SDGs and all that it means for the world this new concept of development.
It is the presidents and ministers who generally take the cake. But the real work is usually done behind the scenes by very valuable people who are not pictured. This is the case of Paula Caballero and Patti Londoño, and many others, as they show in their book.
Paula was the first to raise the idea of replacing the Millennium Goals with the SDGs. She took her to the Chancellor, who took her in, and put Patti, her second in the Ministry, to work with Paula. Between the two they toured the world promoting the initiative.
My role was limited to giving them political support and for that purpose I dedicated myself to “selling” the issue to all the heads of state with whom I met. The Chancellor did the same with her peers. And as Colombia became fashionable, it coincided with the time of the largest number of meetings in history. During my mandate I had more than 600 meetings with different heads of state and personalities. I always repeated the story of the SDGs to them like a mantra.
Paula and Patti describe step by step the entire journey that they had to go through: the partners and allies (Guatemala and Peru were the first) that they achieved; the opponents they had to persuade or neutralize; the key characters they went to; the always decisive role of the presidents of the different groups –such as the G-77 and China (which are actually 134 countries)– and of the officials of the United Nations, whom they had to manage and stimulate; the difficult decisions of when to compromise and when to be uncompromising; the delicate watermark to reconcile the traditional demands of rich countries in terms of transparency and use of resources with the aversion to conditionality of developing countries; the endless meetings to find the right words in the texts…
Anyway, It is the chronicle of the extraordinary diplomatic and negotiation work carried out by these two officials. They deserve all my recognition, that of Colombia and that of the entire world. This story is also a manual on how to do things right for any student of multilateral diplomacy.
Paula pricked my ego
telling me: ‘President, this is your great opportunity to lead something transcendental at the world level’
The book makes a detailed account that goes up to the decision to create the concept of the SDGs and the structure to define them, that is, the one taken at Rio + 20, but it only makes a general reference to what happened afterwards. This is explained because several books have already been published about what happened between 2013 and 2015, but not what happened before.
This book tells for the first time that very important part of the story: where and how the SDGs were conceived.
The Sustainable Development Goals were formally approved as the world’s agenda in a historic session of the UN General Assembly, on September 25, 2015, chaired by Mogens Lykketoft, who is also the president of the Danish Parliament. The entire world, literally represented in the General Assembly hall, erupted in jubilation and applause when the resolution was adopted without a single objection or abstention.
The role that Colombia played in the creation of the SDGs will remain forever as part of the legacy of our government and, as I already mentioned, up there, next to the Nobel Peace Prize.
To these two great women, along with the Chancellor, my infinite gratitude, extended to so many other people who contributed to making possible what seemed impossible.The world will be better thanks to your great work.
JUAN MANUEL SANTOS
Former President of Colombia
For the time
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