The 193-member General Assembly has adopted the new framework, "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", composed of 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years.

The new development agenda, arrived at after months and years of intense negotiations, was adopted as world leaders, heads of global financial institutions and other dignitaries headed to the UN headquarters for its landmark 70th anniversary session.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the agenda as "a clarion call" to "share prosperity, empower people's livelihoods, ensure peace and heal our planet for the benefit of this and future generations".

Among the ambitious 17 goals to be adopted by the UN for the next 15 years is complete poverty eradication, zero hunger, quality education, gender equality, sustainable cities and communities and clean water and sanitation.

Officials have forecast 2015 as "a watershed year" for the UN for having reached an agreement that will "change the paradigm about development" while "leaving no one behind" and giving a boost to a global climate change accord later this year.

In his remarks at the summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, UN chief Ban said nations have reached "a defining moment in human history".

"The new agenda is a promise by leaders to all people everywhere. It is a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world.

It is an agenda for people, to end poverty in all its forms," he said.

Ban said the 17 SDGs are "our guide and a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success".

He underscored that in order to achieve these new global goals, high-level political commitment and a renewed global partnership is required.

"The 2030 Agenda compels us to look beyond national boundaries and short-term interests and act in solidarity for the long-term. We can no longer afford to think and work in silos," he said.

Ban also stressed that institutions will have to become fit for purpose.

The UN chief made a clarion call to governments to adopt a robust universal climate agreement in Paris in December.

"I am encouraged that several countries are already working to incorporate the 2030 Agenda into their national development strategies. But no one can succeed working alone," Ban said.

Source: MENA