$3 Trillion UN Development Plan Sets Ambitious Agenda for Nonprofits

Nonprofit leaders are heralding the United Nations adoption of a new 15-year global-development agenda even as they acknowledge a long, costly road ahead to deliver on its promises.

After years of planning and negotiations, U.N. members formally adopted 17 sustainable-development goals (SDGs) on Friday during a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. The SDGs will serve as a 15-year blueprint for how the world—chiefly governments, corporations, and philanthropists—tackle international development priorities through 2030. They succeed the Millennium Development Goals, set in 2000.

The SDGs include ending poverty and hunger, ensuring access to water and sanitation, advancing gender equality, and combating climate change.