Huffington Post: What Do We Need to Turn the Sustainable Development Goals’ Idealism Into Reality?
Tewodros Melesse, director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation

“…[I]t will take an unprecedented, global joint effort if the ambition of the new [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)] is to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people … [The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)] is lending some weight to that collective push — in the form of an ambitious target to reach 45 million new users of contraception by 2020. This builds on the 15 million new users we reached in the years 2012-2014. Together this is a total contribution of 60 million new users, and a major step towards the global goal of enabling 120 million more women and girls to use contraceptives by 2020, as set out by Family Planning 2020 [(FP2020)] … Our pledge to reach a further 45 million new users will help to bring the lofty ambitions set out in the SDGs and FP2020 a little closer to reality” (11/3).

The Guardian: When will Britain’s grand ambitions on the global goals be put into action?
Helen Dennis and Ruth Fuller, co-chairs of Beyond 2015 U.K., and Kate Munro, policy and public affairs adviser at Bond

“…Leadership on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) … is about much more than aid. … [T]he SDGs also require … government departments to be pulling in the same direction and delivering positive global impact … The risk is that after more than three years’ hard negotiation of the SDGs, governments lose momentum and fail on delivery. … [The U.K.] government has not yet made any commitment to produce an SDG implementation plan to guide the U.K. This is why the NGO umbrella organization Bond alongside Beyond 2015 U.K. have produced our report, Bringing the Goals Home: Implementing the SDGs in the U.K. We want to keep the conversation alive and the ambition high — and hope this will encourage people to start putting proposals on the table. … [W]e need SDG champions at the highest level and the right mechanisms to translate the strategy into departmental plans and budgets. … If the goals are to be delivered, fundamental changes are needed…” (11/3).