I have recently finished a paper on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the issues that need to be addressed to make them a real progress. The paper will be published as a chapter in an upcoming book I am editing together with Helmut Gaisbauer and Clemens Sedmak for the the Austrian Chapter of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) that explores  ethical issues in poverty alleviation. The book will be published with Springer in the next few months.
You can downlaod the paper from my academia.edu page.

This is the abstract:

In this chapter, I will provide a philosophical commentary on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will play a key role in global poverty reduction in the next 15 years. In particular, I will focus on five issues: possible trade-offs, the task of prioritization, the vagueness of the SDGs, the required coordination to implement the SDGs and the establishment of a system of sanctions against actors who fail to achieve the SDGs. Firstly, moving forward with measures to realize the SDGs will most likely demand trade-offs between certain goals; therefore, it is urgent to identify which trade-offs are likely to occur and understand how to choose those goals that should be pursued under such circumstances. Secondly, in addition to possible trade-offs, it is likely that some goals are more easy to achieve than others and that states, as well as international institutions, will have to decide where to invest the money. This probably means that some goals will be prioritized over others, with investments focused more on their achievement, at least in the short-term. Thirdly, although the SDGs cover 17 goals with a total of 169 targets, many of them are still very vague. It will be necessary to set measureable and feasible benchmarks, which can be used to track progress. Fourthly, the SDGs are ambitious and, therefore, the possibility that they will not be achieved is, unfortunately, rather high, especially if the vagueness of some of the targets is not exploited in order to achieve at least low levels of progress. Until now, not much is known about the strategies behind achieving the SDGs and how this global effort will be coordinated, as well as whether the current global framework of institutions is fit for that task. Fifthly, it is certain that, if the SDGs fail the poor and other vulnerable populations, there will be no fearful consequence for other populations, particularly those in rich countries.

IV. Tagung für Praktische Philosophie
29./30. September 2016
Universität Salzburg

Keynotes: Peter Schaber (Zürich) und Elif Özmen (Regensburg)
Konferenzsprachen: Deutsch und Englisch

Wir laden alle interessierten Kolleg_innen, mit und ohne universitäre
Anbindung, aus dem gesamten Spektrum der praktischen Philosophie
(angewandte Philosophie, Sozialphilosophie, Ethik, Rechtsphilosophie,
politische Philosophie etc.) und verwandter Disziplinen ein, Vorschläge
für Beiträge einzusenden. Diese können fertige Aufsätze, Teile aus
größeren Arbeiten, work in progress oder gescheiterte Versuche, im
Denken voranzukommen, sein. Für jeden Vortrag sind 30 Minuten inkl.
Diskussion vorgesehen.

Vorschläge für Beiträge (im Umfang von ca. 250 Wörtern) bitte bis 1. Mai
2016 an philosophie(at)sbg.ac.at

Für freuen uns auch über die Einreichung von thematischen Panels, also
der Zusammenstellung von drei themenbezogenen Vorträgen.

Weitere Informationen unter: http://www.uni-salzburg.at/zea/praktphil

ENGLISH VERSION:

IV. Conference on Practical Philosophy

29./30. September 2016
University of Salzburg
Keynotes (in German): Peter Schaber (Zürich) und Elif Özmen (Regensburg)
Conference Languages: German and English

We invite all interested colleagues (graduate, postgraduate, doctoral
students, postdocs, etc), with and without university connections, from
the whole range of practical philosophy (applied philosophy, social
philosophy, ethics, philosophy of law, political philosophy, etc.) and
related disciplines to submit proposals for contributions. These can be
finished essays, parts of larger works, work in progress or failed
attempts to get ahead in thinking. For each presentation 30 minutes
(including discussion) are provided.

Proposals for contributions (to the extent of about 250 words) should be
sent to philosophie(at)sbg.ac.at until 1. May 2016.

We also welcome proposals for thematic panels.

For further information, see http://www.uni-salzburg.at/zea/praktphil or
contact philosophie(at)sbg.ac.at