A/69/302 statistical system coordination at the national and international levels. 1 This resulted in effective generation and collection of data for the Goals, which in turn influenced and shaped national and international policies on human development. The Goals stimulated global and national development efforts, notably towards eradicating poverty and improving access to primary education. 10. In the United Nations Millennium Declaration, Governments pledged to strive for the protection and promotion of all human rights, but the Goal framewor k failed to live up to that pledge. This state of affairs has demonstrated that issues left out of a universally agreed agenda are not effectively monitored and reported on and are easily overlooked when priorities are set, policies defined or budgets allo cated. The Goals have been viewed by some as an economic growth agenda, not explicitly aligned with human rights. Yet, human rights are essential for sustainable development: Governments’ legal obligations regarding international human rights standards must be reflected in current development policy in order to enhance effectiveness and accountability. By delinking the Goals from human rights, State obligations were reduced to mere policy options, for example on the issue of free primary education. In addition, given that international human rights standards did not form the basis on which the Goals were developed, the targets created were sometimes unambitious or inadequate. 1 Research shows that the Goals were also often seen as donor driven because organizations based in the North focused more on the goals than on human rights, whereas those based in the South engaged more on human rights and hardly on the Goals. 2 11. Although equality was one of the core values of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the Goals did not adequately tackle issues of discrimination, equality and equity, resulting in increases in inequalities within and between countries. 3 The Goals placed emphasis on overall progress as the main indicator, thereby overlooking slower progress or the growing exclusion of marginalized groups, including migrants living and working in precarious circumstances. 12. The Goals encouraged technical fixes and focused on the low-hanging fruit, rather than targeting the root causes of development problems. Consequently, they monitored progress and success through a one-size-fits-all lens, focusing only on what was easily measurable and not on what was important, such as the empowerment of marginalized groups. The lack of proper monitoring meant that i t was difficult to hold Governments accountable at the global, national and local levels. 13. In addition, the targets did not sufficiently address inequalities, which made it possible to achieve them without properly addressing marginalized groups. Inste ad of being transformative, the Goals were technocratic. 4 __________________ 1 2 3 4 4/26 United Nations system task team on the post-2015 United Nations development agenda, “Realizing the future we want for all” (New York, 2012). Available from www.un.org/ millenniumgoals/pdf/Post_2015_UNTTreport.pdf. Paul J. Nelson, “Human rights, the Millennium Development Goals, and the future of development cooperation”, World Development, vol. 35, No. 12 (December 2007), pp. 2041-2055. Open letter by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, dated 6 June 2013, available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/MDGs/OpenLetterMS_Post2015.pdf. OHCHR, Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals in Practice: A Review of Country Strategies and Reporting (HR/PUB/10/1). 14-59006