Post 2015: Prospects for a More Visible Role for Transport in the Sustainable Development Agenda

The last three years have seen activities towards developing a new international development framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. In September 2014, the UN Open Working Group [OWG] on Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] presented the Final Outcome Document containing 17 Goals to the UN General Assembly [UNGA]. A final document is expected to be adopted at a meeting of Heads of States and Governments in September 2015. In many developing countries, spatial patterns of poverty, food insecurity, maternal health and child mortality highly correlate with remoteness and lack of transport. According to the World Bank, transport puts development goals within reach through its enabling role to other sectors of a nation’s economy (World Bank, 2008). Achievement of many development targets such as the ones proposed in the SDG are highly dependent on the availability, reliability and affordability of transport. The SDG framework that is now in its final stages of negotiations does not make explicit recognition of transport as a key enabler in achievement of many of the proposed Goals. This paper argues that for sustainable development to be achieved, the profile of transport as an enabler of inclusive growth and a key to poverty eradication should be strengthened in the SDG framework.