African countries are engaged at the United Nations (UN) to determine the post-2015 framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This brief examines suggestions in the Common African Position (CAP) on the post-2015 development agenda, published by the African Union. It compares them to goals developed by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) with the Korean Development Institute (KDI), and to goals in other UN reports. The CAP advocates 29 goals—too many. Some are either already being championed by other organizations, others are not measurable or not universally supported across Africa. Others will never receive global consensus. Using these four criteria, the CAP goals can be streamlined to produce 5 unique and measurable goals that the African Union can effectively champion.
