The 193 member states of the United Nations have reached agreement on the new Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) that aim to end poverty as well as promote prosperity and people's well-being while protecting the environment by 2030.
The accord is an ambitious agenda featuring 17 new sustainable development goals to replace the retiring 15-year-old Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The following is a brief account of the SDGs:
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere;
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture;
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages;
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning;
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls;
Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all;
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all;
Goal 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all;
Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation;
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries;
Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable;
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns;
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts;
Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources;
Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss;
Goal 16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies;
Goal 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.