Sustainable Development Goals: a powerful vision of a better world
Our Campaigns Officer, Kit Powney, reflects on the new Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals at the end of the year, as negotiated by 193 countries last month.
These goals cover a wide range of areas critical to ending poverty, including: food security, gender equality, economic growth, health, water sanitation and action on climate change.
The SDG agenda marks a new phase of countries pulling together to tackle urgent global challenges, including gender injustice, economic inequality and climate change. They will be signed formally by world leaders later this month at the UN in New York and will begin to be implemented by countries in 2016.
Re-energising the fight against poverty
We hope these new aims will re-energise the fight against poverty and empower communities around the world to ensure their governments accomplish all goals by 2030.
We recognise the importance of each and every one of the 17 goals. Our staff and partners worldwide lobbied hard for standalone goals on gender equality, reducing inequality and climate change, all of which were achieved.
We particularly welcome the references in the official SDG document to `leave no one behind’ — the idea that no goal or target can be met unless it is met across all groups in society. We also welcome reference in the agreement to sharing wealth and addressing income inequality.
Climate change prioritised
We are very pleased that a ‘green thread’ will run through the SDGs. Crucially, the SDG document recognises the need to tackle climate change to end poverty, for current and future generations.
The final text of the SDGs calls ‘for the widest possible international cooperation’ to keep the global average temperature rise well below 2 degrees, which resonates with our Climate Justice campaign.
We will continue to lobby the UK Government to ensure it fulfils its commitment to implement the SDGs. If the UK is to play its part in achieving these goals, all government departments, including HM Treasury, need to be involved — not just the Department for International Development.
With the SDG summit on the horizon, we enter into a new era in the fight against poverty, inequality and climate change.
Helen Dennis, Christian Aid’s Senior Adviser on Poverty and Inequality commented:
‘Inevitably, there are some disappointments in the final text. But we now have in our hands a powerful vision of a better world, which will underpin and create momentum for the achievement of these new global goals.’
Would you like to get involved?
A number of organisations in the UK are coming together on the Millennium Bridge in London on 24 September; the eve of the SDG Summit, to call on world leaders to ‘light the way’ to end global poverty, inequality and climate change. This will coincide with similar events on the same day all over the world. If you would like to attend this event, please email us: campaigns@christian-aid.org
In the meantime see our new film about the SDGs and how they will affect our work.
