The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be agreed in September and come into effect on 1 January 2016, will guide international development and cooperation for the next 15 years. According to the draft released this month, they will be aspirational goals, intended to provide a reference for setting national priorities, in rich and poor countries alike. But despite a three-year debate about goals for the post-2015 development agenda, little consideration has been given so far to the targets that countries already have, how they are used, the extent to which they reflect global targets and what they tell us about existing political commitments in different SDG-related areas. Read more.