Next year will see the finale of a protracted performance: the global cast of development actors will set the development agenda for the next fifteen years.
Rehearsals are already well under way, and from what we can see of the Sustainable Development Goals, ambitions are immense. Eradicating poverty everywhere and building environmental sustainability into the fabric of development are the loftiest goals, but there will likely be a shift across the board away from narrow targets
(say, for primary school enrolment) towards the bigger picture (delivering a quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all).
So much for the rhetoric, what about the resources? The answers to that question should emerge in July 2015, at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa. That is where the SDGs will be translated into financial commitments. And this is the topic of the 2014 CAPE conference.