Blog on SDGs


A NEW ERA FOR DEVELOPMEMENT
From Sight and Life on September 28,2015

Last week was a busy week in New York and an important one for nutrition. The Global Goals or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were ratified by the United Nations and will now form the blueprint for the world’s development over the next 15 years. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed them as a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world. He urged that we must use the goals to transform the world, through partnerships and commitment and, leave no–one behind. Ban said “We must engage all actors, as we did in shaping the Agenda. We must include parliaments and local governments, and work with cities and rural areas. We must rally businesses and entrepreneurs. We must involve civil society in defining and implementing policies – and give it the space to hold us to account. We must listen to scientists and academia. We will need to embrace a data revolution. Most important, we must set to work – NOW.”

Speaking at the session, Pope Francis stressed the need for equity, demanded justice for the weak and, affirmed the rights of the environment in a forceful speech that warned against “a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity.” We were particularly impressed by how he suggested our implementation success should best be measured – “effective, practical and immediate access to essential material and spiritual goods including housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and drinking water, religious freedom and more generally spiritual freedom and education... This is the right to existence of human nature itself.”

Implementation science and leadership development are at the core of Sight and Life’s strategy and we see them as the new frontiers for nutrition as we move forward. Read our September blog for our reflections on this momentous occasion.