The UN Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals is holding its 12th and penultimate meeting in New York this week. Representatives from UN member states are discussing changes to the “zero draft”, a document released by the OWG on June 2, which currently contains 17 proposed sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 212 targets. The goals, to be attained by 2030, are to succeed the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015. This week’s session was preceded by three days of informal consultations held on 9-11 June in New York. Ahead of the meeting, several civil society groups published papers and reactions to the zero draft, proposed additions to the text and ways to reduce the number of targets. With regard to proposed Goal 2 on ending hunger and achieving food security and nutrition, Biovision Foundation and the Millennium Institute, on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Cluster of the NGO Major Group, suggested some changes: Adding a specific reference to “the progressive realization of the right to food” and underlining the need for sustainable and diverse food systems which “maintain and regenerate natural resources and ecosystems” while “contributing to human and environmental health“. They suggested including a target on land degradation in Goal 2, with a focus on restoring degraded land, since addressing land and soil degradation are key to ensuring food security and nutrition. The global civil society campaign Beyond 2015 also issued a series of recommendations, such as the wording “ensure food sovereignty and the basic right to food for all” in order to end hunger. Moreover, the campaign suggested adding a reference to the elimination of harmful agricultural subsidies. The next OWG session will take place on 14-18 July and the group will then submit its final SDG proposal to the UN Secretary General and the General Assembly in September 2014.