The Thought Doesn’t Count…But Our Words Do

We live in a world where:

· Of the more than 125 million people in need of humanitarian assistance worldwide, over 75% are women and children.

· Almost half of the world’s poor are expected to live in countries affected by fragility, conflict and violence by 2030.

· 12% of the world’s population living at or below $1.90 a day.

· One in every 113 people globally is now either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee.

· Even though women produce more than half of the world’s food, they comprise 70% of the world’s hungry.

· 103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 per cent of them are women.

· More than six million children still die before their fifth birthday each year globally.

The list goes on… Maybe these facts are shocking to you, maybe they’re not. Maybe you’re one of those statistics, maybe you’re not. Maybe right now you’re thinking “What does this have to do with me?” And the answer is everything.

One year on…

One year ago, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted at a United Nations Summit in New York City. On January 1, 2016, the countdown began to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets.

The 17 SDGs cover issues from poverty elimination to health to education to gender equality to climate change. They are a plan of action encompassed in global goals to safeguard the planet while ensuring the wellbeing of both present and future generations.

The SDGs have the potential to leave no one behind. The biggest issue is that international agreements, no matter how well crafted, often remain on paper. If the challenge last year was for 193 countries to agree all of these ground-breaking commitments, then the even bigger challenge this year is to focus on implementation.

The SDGs are a follow up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), fifteen development goals that were adopted in 2000. But what makes the SDGs different from the MDGs? Why did we need a new plan?

The SDGs are universal: The SDGs aren’t a framework to be imposed on developing nations. They are targets for every nation to strive for, recognizing that even developed nations must address issues such as climate change and inequities. The SDGs were chosen through inclusive discussions with students, civil society organisations, governments, the private sector, academia, and religious bodies from all over the world. We must all share in the responsibility for building a sustainable world.

The SDGs are integrated: they aim to achieve the balance among social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable development. The 17 SDGs are a package… if you’re in for one, you’re in for all 17.

The SDGs are transformative: they stress that “business as usual” isn’t enough to achieve sustainable development.

The SDGs have the potential to leave no one behind. The biggest issue is that international agreements, no matter how well crafted, often remain on paper. If the challenge last year was for 193 countries to agree all of these ground-breaking commitments, then the even bigger challenge this year is to focus on implementation.

It’s not all rainbows and butterflies

“So the SDGs are to monitor the attainment of goals that cannot be monitored or attained, financed by unidentified financing.” -William Easterly, Foreign Policy

The SDGs are riddled with challenges. They are utopian, optimistic, perhaps even unachievable. Unlike the framework of the MDGs, the SGDs framework makes every goal a priority, which — given limited resources and political will — could actually suggest that nothing is a priority. Commitment to the SDGs is voluntary and country-led, reflecting a perhaps naive hope that leaders will find it in the good of their hearts to follow through. An even bigger challenge? Even if we get 193 countries to agree to implement the goals, the question of how to pay for them remains.

In the case of the SDGs, it’s not the thought that counts. Saying yes, we agree these are good ideas really isn’t enough. We need to make them work. In July of this year, leaders of governments from around the world met in New York for the first High Level Political Forum since adopting the SDGs to discuss implementation. Countries volunteered their national plans, others took note, and everyone left feeling like the weight of the world is on their shoulders.

Because it is.

How do we go from promises to change?

“Implementation requires us to transform our work to a people-centered and planet sensitive agenda with local, national and global momentum for implementation.” -Dr. David Nabarro, Special Adviser on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

We live in a world where access to good schools, healthcare, and other essential services is elusive for many people, closely tied to socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, and geography. The SDGs are supposed to be the solution. Achieving these goals is going to be the greatest challenge the world has faced. But the thing is, we don’t have a Plan B.

Success in achieving the goals relies on integrated responses at local, national and global level by ALL stakeholders. This isn’t just a high level political agreement. Everyone needs to get involved, and everyone needs to talk about what they are doing.

The first step? Advocacy.

It won’t be easy, but the more we make the SDGs part of our daily conversations and lives, the quicker we will change the status quo.

The SDGs affect all of us in one way or another , and we need everyone to understand the goals and take action. How your neighbourhood deals with the environment, gender equality or health care is as important as how a neighbourhood 3,000 miles away addresses these challenges. It’s time that we hold our governments, civil society organisations, schools, corporations, and religious bodies accountable. Change will only happen if we work for it and demand it. There are many ways to get involved: volunteer with your local charity, talk to students from your primary school or high school, or lead an awareness session at your church. It won’t be easy, but the more we make the SDGs part of our daily conversations and lives, the quicker we will change the status quo.