In the ‘Decade of Action’ to Meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, There Is Still Much to Be Done
There is new growth in the garden. A stem, the color of an emerald, sprouts from the dirt. The gardener takes note. As she tills and waters, she wonders if the new plant will grow in the dirt in a way that respects the older plants. The gardener hopes their roots will share nutrients. That they will grow together, side-by-side, amicably. Only time will tell. No matter what, the efforts put toward a garden never cease.
Humanity is like a garden. There needs to be care and consideration. There needs to be respect and space. Equitable access to water and nutrients and sunshine. Needs, both unique and different, and universal and the same, need to be met. And when this doesn’t happen, what results? In a garden, some plants thrive and take over while others wither. In humanity, disparities grow out of the cracks. Some people have access to clean air, food, and shelter while others face poverty, inequality, and starvation.
Global humanity needs care—and it lies all on our shoulders today. Unlike the well-intentioned gardener, we cannot merely hope the issues will resolve themselves. We cannot gently water the plants and till the soil. We have to be vigilant and unrelenting in our solves. Until we do, the pains facing humans in unprecedented and unjust ways will continue to get worse.
In 2015, the United Nations devised a set of objectives that speak to the most extreme issues facing humanity. Deemed the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, the UN describes these as “a call to action by all countries–poor, rich and middle-income–to promote prosperity while protecting the planet.” This grand vision recognizes “that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection”—all by the year 2030.
We are now five years into this fifteen-year call to action, which leaves us in the decade stretch. In late 2019, Secretary-General António Guterres implored the need for aggressive mobilization of these efforts. Guterres stated there has been progress, as “cities, businesses, the international financial sector, civil society, young people, and more are stepping up and taking action.” A global commitment is evident. Yet, there is still so much that needs to be done for rising debt, gender-based violence, environmental catastrophe, gender equality, global hunger, egregious wealth, and extinction.
In truth, as the world faces a global pandemic, the need for global transformations is even more dire. Change backed by a critical mass of community, municipal, state, and national levels, and mission-focused, impact investors needs to happen.
This starts with constant awareness of the goals—which we’ve outlined here—so we can plant the seeds individually, then work toward cultivating an equitable, just, and thriving garden of humanity.
The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty.
More than 10 percent of the world’s population continues to live in extreme poverty. This means fulfilling basic needs like access to clean water, food, and education (among other things) is a constant struggle. While the global number of people living in extreme poverty had declined, from 36 per cent in 1990 to 10 per cent in 2015, the positive pace of change is slowing due to COVID-19. The UN states that new research “warns that the economic fallout from the global pandemic could increase global poverty by as much as half a billion people.”
After decades of improvement, the amount of people globally who suffer from hunger started to rise again in 2014. Today, about 690 million people face hunger, which accounts for a 10-million-person-increase over the last year.
3. Promote healthy lives and well-being for all ages.
Pre-COVID, significant improvements in increased life expectancy and reduced maternal deaths were made. Yet, there still needs to be drastic improvement in addressing persistent health threats, including various diseases, such as COVID-19.
4. Provide quality education for all.
A prosperous, just, humane world depends on an educated and empowered population. This is a critical marker in reducing poverty, hunger, and gender inequality, and increasing gender equality. With COVID-19 threatening educational systems around the world, the need for staple and consistent education is ever increasing.
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
This goal complements the previous. Gender equality is an absolute right. Women and female-identifying persons need to be given the same opportunities and fair treatment as males. While there has been progress, gender disparities still rage across the world, from sexual violence to societal expectations to discriminatory laws.
6. Ensure access to clean water and sanitation for all.
The criticality of washing hands has always been evident—but never more so than now, as we face a global pandemic. Yet still, the basic need of clean water and accessible hygiene is still a challenge for so many. One in three people lack access to clean drinking water, while two in five people do not have a facility where they can wash their hands with soap and water.
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.
Today, nearly 90 percent of people have access to electricity. This illustration of more widely available energy shows progress made toward this goal. However, “more focused attention is needed to improve access to clean and safe cooking fuels and technologies for 3 billion people, to expand the use of renewable energy beyond the electricity sector, and to increase electrification in sub-Saharan Africa,” states the UN.
8. Promote decent work and economic growth.
Fairly paying, inclusive jobs are a right—and a path to a healthy livelihood. The market impact of COVID-19 has put nearly half of the global working population at risk of losing their jobs.
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.
Some of the most vital answers to creating critical impact and advancing societies are answered in sound infrastructure, both tangible and intangible. Sustainable manufacturing is essential for building the means for equitable housing, advanced products to promote well-being, and the like, while innovative technologies aid in the long-term solutions for environmental, humanitarian, and economical challenges.
Within and among nations, inequalities still egregiously exist, which is drastically evident in income disparities. COVID-19 has further exacerbated the need for societies to be inclusive, equitable, and sustainable in order to be resilient.
11. Make cities safe, resilient, and sustainable.
The UN points out that “cities and metropolitan areas are powerhouses of economic growth,” but they “also account for about 70 per cent of global carbon emissions and over 60 per cent of resource use.” And with the increase of urbanization across the globe, disparities between safe, clean living quarters are growing, with homelessness and informal living quarters rising. Research shows that the impacts of COVID-19 are causing these living inequalities to worsen.
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Increasing our awareness about resource efficiency, supporting conscious companies, and being mindful of our personal consumption habits is one of the most effective grassroots ways we can make a difference in this world. Being a more conscious, sustainably focused consumer has a direct positive impact on economies large and small, the environments, and our communities’ wellbeing.
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Climate change does not select. There is no title, no level of income, no living location that can save someone from the grave reality that our planet is warming, which his driving extreme environment changes. This is grave enough, but the facts get darker as we see that marginalized communities are more acutely experiencing the effects of climate change and environmental hazards. This is an injustice on every level, which needs to be addressed with urgent, immediate, consistent action.
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources.
Our oceans, which make up the majority of the Earth, feed us, provide essential minerals, generate oxygen, and sustain economies. A healthy, equitable future is one with a clean ocean, not one that is the unwilling recipient of 8 million metric tons of plastic annually. Drastic changes need to happen to save large ocean countries, marine ecosystems, and humanity. COVID-19 has caused a slight regression in ocean destruction, which proves both the dire need and ability to better honor our waters.
15. Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss.
Humans have caused the depletion of our forests, therefore we need to cause the restoration of them. Our livelihoods and those of future generations depends on it, as healthy, thriving natural land is key in the fight against climate change.
16. Promote just, peaceful, inclusive societies.
Human rights issues—near and far—are matters that concern every person and every society. If one individual does not have access to equitable social services and justice, all of humanity is lacking. Justice, caring systems, and warmth need to always come first from the state, and those of us who are fortunate to currently have these rights need to fight so they’re extended to everyone.
17. Revitalize global partnerships.
In order to thrive, a development agenda “requires inclusive partnerships,” states the UN, “built upon principles and values, and upon a shared vision and shared goals placing people and the planet at the centre.”
To learn more about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, visit: un.org.
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