A running blog from The Guardian on the latest remarks from global leaders on the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals. 

Toby Porter, Chief Executive of HelpAge International:

This summit is not business as usual. The Global Goals give us an unparalleled opportunity to bring older people fully into the picture. We can, and must ensure that the international and national development agenda dominating the next 15 years recognises and responds to the global phenomenon of population ageing, supporting women and men as they age.

The sustainable development agenda pledges to ‘leave no-one behind’, and older age or older people are included directly or by implication in 15 of the 17 Global Goals and their targets with key phrases including ‘all ages’, ‘older persons’ and ‘lifelong’. The language of ‘action for all ages’, the life course and intergenerational approaches seem finally to have brought about an appreciation that women and men share the same human rights as they age.

Speaking from New York, Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children said:

These goals have genuine teeth and substance and we shouldn’t underestimate that nearly 200 world leaders have stood up at the United Nations and publicly committed to doing this.

They build on massive progress over the last decade – including halving child mortality – and pave the way to end extreme poverty and preventable child deaths for good in the next fifteen years. This is a watershed moment we should celebrate.