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Social Good Summit: The Heart of the Sustainable Development Goals

NOTE: This guest post was written by Ajiya Doka, who blogged at the Social Good Summit. Ajiya Doka is a sophomore Diplomacy and International Relations Major. Her areas of interest include post conflict resolution and nation building specifically political stability. Her regions of interest include Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America. Ajiya enjoys telling a great story and hopes to travel the world to see, share, and understand the over 7 billion people that live on this earth. Besides writing for the Diplomatic Envoy, Ajiya enjoys Starbucks Coffee and the hustle and bustle of city life. As a Washington D.C. native, she enjoys political discourse, and eating and drinking for free on other people’s dollar.

 

With the adoption of the Global Goals this past Friday by the United Nations, it is great that the world has come together to agree to a comprehensive agenda to move the world towards positive sustainable development by 2030. From ending hunger, to environmental protection and economic growth, the goals are both comprehensive and interconnected to one another. It is great to have goals and celebrate this global commitment, but who do we hold responsible for the implementation of these goals? Here is a list of people and groups who should be held responsible for the success or failure of these goals for sustainable development.

  1. The United Nations

Transnational problems cannot be solved by one state alone. As the United Nations looks towards the adoption of indicators for the goals, it is important that the United Nations be held accountable for the how success is measured. Critics of the Sustainable Development Goals as well as critics of international institutions in general will attribute failure to the UN’s inability to influence state action. The United Nations must hold itself accountable to the goals it has set and implement measures that adequately measure success or else failure is imminent.

  1. The Nation

The Sustainable Development Goals must be taken out of diplomatic space and made the priority of individual countries in order to see overall world improvement. Governments must see that the goals for 2030 will not be reached without corresponding national regulations to make them attainable for all of their citizens. Without government promotion and action, these goals for sustainable development will sit on the back burner until 2030.

  1. Civic Organizations

Non-Governmental organizations have the ability to take a lead role in promoting and acting upon the goals for sustainable development. With thousands of nonprofit organizations globally, each with their own area of focus, there is great room for collaboration to reach a common goal of a better world in 2030. It is unnecessary to reinvent the wheel when there are already so many organizations already doing such great work in addressing many of the adopted goals.

  1. The Private Sector

When reflecting on the sustainable development goals, many of the goals rest on economic prosperity for all. Companies and firms have the opportunity to use their position as economic drivers to use their resources not only for profit, but also for social good. The private sector is a great source of innovation and with collaboration, these innovations can be used to promote and create a better world in 2030.

  1. The Individual

Of all the groups that should be held responsible, the individual is the most important to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality. Individuals have the power to volunteer, to donate, and to use their voices to let the world know that people do care about the Sustainable Development Goals. There must be political, economic, and social capital at stake to pressure all aspects of society to act.

So go ahead and tell everyone! Keeping a keen eye for dynamic action is what will produce a better world in 2030.

 

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