Are the SDGs winning?
10 October 2016
It has been one year
since the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed to by 195 countries at the
United Nations. Our ambitious goals for global development that
is sustainable, resilient and inclusive. Has anything changed so
far?
There has certainly been a flurry of SDG activities happening around the world.
Governments seem to have been taking the goals quite seriously. There has been
quite a bit of national planning, budgetary responses and policy change as a
result. I have myself gotten word that our National Planning Commission here in
Namibia is working on taking a systems (modeling) approach to the SDGs.
Apparently business is also emerging to implement the SDGs. Probably because
they themselves see opportunity here. Big investment firms are putting money
where their mouths are. For instance, Credit Suisse has specific impact
investments aimed at every single goal.
The SDGs are meant to be seen within a system. So it is no surprise that
institutions are starting to systems think around them. I read an article
recently by 17Goals that civil society are grouping together, water people,
food people, climate people, all realising that they are essentially working on
the same outcomes.
Now the question is, are the SDGs turning us, the ordinary citizens, into
global citizens? Over the past year, I have been teaching all sorts
of people in my work days, through facilitation and training sessions, on the
SDGs. And it is quite interesting the hope that has gleamed in their eyes when
we walk through them. You see, the SDGs, despite their flaws, are a vision. A
way forward. Everyone can contribute to this vision. Everyone has a role to
play.