The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will build upon the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and converge with the Post 2015 Development Agenda.  It was decided to establish an “inclusive and transparent intergovernmental process open to all stakeholders, with a view to developing global sustainable development goals to be agreed by the General Assembly.”  The High-level Panel on Global Sustainability argues that by making both the cost of action and the cost of inaction transparent, political processes can
summon both the arguments and the political will necessary to act for a sustainable future. The long-term vision of the Panel is to eradicate poverty, diminish inequality, make growth inclusive, and make production and consumption more sustainable, while combating climate change and respecting a range of other planetary boundaries.

As part of an initiative to build better governance, coherence and accountability for sustainable development at the national and global levels, the following priority areas have been suggested by the SG’s High Level Panel on Sustainable Development:

• Improving coherence at the subnational, national and international levels
• Creating a set of sustainable development goals
• Establishing a periodic global sustainable development outlook report that brings together information and assessments currently dispersed across institutions and
analyze them in an integrated way
• Making a new commitment to revitalize and reform the international institutional framework, including considering the creation of a global sustainable development council