From MDG's to SDG's: Nursing's Role in Development through 2030

From 2000 through 2015, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have serve as time bound, quantifiable objectives to measure progress towards development.  The first seven MDGs focus upon specific areas of action including hunger, education, gender, children, maternal, HIV, and environment; and the eighth goal focused on the importance of global partnerships.  Throughout 2015, the world is taking stock in our collective efforts towards achieving these eight goals.  In September of 2015, the United Nations will convene a summit to adopt the post-2015 development agenda.  Known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from 2015 through 2030 a set of up to 17 goals will be considered and finally adopted.  Among these new goals, nurses must identify where they can most successfully contribute towards the global development agenda.  While the SDGs will be set before the STTI biennium conference convenes, the 2015 meeting of STTI represents the first opportunity for nurses to collectively consider how to integrate into the ongoing development agenda.  This presentation will highlight the final form of the SDGs including specific opportunities for nurse leaders, researchers, and practitioners to align their global vision with their local influence.  The presenter is uniquely able to offer this opportunity to reflect on the SDGs because of his unique position as a science and technology policy advisor to the Honorable John Kerry, Secretary of State of the United States.