When Moses went to Mount Sinai more than 3,000 years ago, he came back with 10 commandments. When the world’s presidents and prime ministers go to New York City in late summer, they will go back not with 10 commandments but 169.

Too many? Some people certainly think so.

“Stupid development goals,” the Economist said recently. It argued that the 17 sustainable development goals and roughly 169 targets should “honor Moses and be pruned to 10 goals.” Others disagree. In a report for the Overseas Development Institute, May Miller-Dawkins warned of the dangers of letting practicality “blunt ambition” and backed SDGs with “high ambition.”

The debate over the “right” number of goals and targets is interesting, important even. But it misses a key point: No matter how many goals and targets are finally agreed, if we can’t measure their real impact on people’s lives, on our societies and on the environment, then they risk becoming irrelevant.

Read More at www.devex.com