The Search for a Post-2015 International (Sustainable) Development Agenda: Some Reflections from a European Perspective

Rethinking Migration in the 2030 Agenda: Towards a De-Territorialized Conceptualization of Development

“…The UN 'Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration' (UN 2001) mentions migration only as one of the causes of the worsening global malaria problem, and migrants as 'victims of discrimination, racism and intolerance' (Clemens, 2014). Although a review of 15 years of MDGs shows that the mobilizing power of these eight relatively simple aims, captured in colourful icons, has been huge (Wouters et al 2014), criticism of the MDGs appears to dominate discussions in academic and practitioners' circles. These criticisms can be condensed into four main strands: (1) the conceptualization of development, with a rather reductionist view of development and above all an apolitical perspective on development, in which human rights, uneven access to resources and unequal 'terms of trade' are reduced to 'absentee' powers (see Koehler, 2015); (2) the responsibilities for development, isolating the causes of poverty within the domestic policies of governments in the Global South; (3) the contextualization of development with limited room for diversity and (4) methodological issues, leading to indicator-based management (see also Koehler, 2015;Nelson, 2007;Pogge, 2004;Saith, 2006;Vandemoortele, 2011;Wouters et al 2014).…”