Language in the United Nations post-2015 development agenda: Challenges to language policy and planning

The United Nations system has been engaged for some years in setting new development priorities to replace the Millennium Development Goals following their expiry in 2015. While language issues are almost wholly absent from documents intended to guide this policy process, there are thought-provoking implications for language planners in some of the key ideas advanced by agencies within the UN system. These include the need to address structural inequalities, greater emphasis on cities as loci of social planning and management, growing interest in social protection floors as a policy mechanism, and the implications of sustainable development as an alternative planning paradigm.