Children, Youth and Developmental Science in the 2015‐2030 Global Sustainable Development Goals

In September 2016, the member states of the United Nations completed the process of adopting and defi ning indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; United Nations, 2015). Developed through a three-year, worldwide participatory process, these 17 goals and 169 targets represent a global consensus on the part of U.N. member nations towards an inclusive, sustainable world, centered around ensuring equity in all countries at a time of great environmental and humanitarian crises. This Social Policy Report describes the central role of supporting child and youth development in achieving the vision behind the U.N. Sustainable Development Agenda. The report then addresses the importance of developmental science in achieving the aims of the Sustainable Development Agenda through generating knowledge of child and youth development in diverse contexts, monitoring and measurement to reveal patterns of success and inequity, and building capacity for developmental science in all countries. We emphasize the goal that most clearly encompasses development from birth to young adulthood (SDG 4) and also describe the relevance of developmental science to the other goals. Children, Youth and Developmental Science in the 2015–2030 Global Sustainable Development Goals volume 30, number 3 2017 Author’s Note: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Abbie Raikes, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 986075, Omaha, NE, 68198. abbie.raikes@unmc.edu. Yoshikawa’s work on this article was partially supported by a grant from the NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute to the Global TIES for Children Center at New York University. Pia Rebello Britto UNICEF Iheoma Iruka University of Nebraska