discover the
SDGs
What are the SDGS?
The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Global Goals, were adopted by governments in September 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity to all by 2030.
The SDGs are complex. They include targets and indicators that help countries and stakeholders to manage, develop, implement strategies, allocate resources, monitor and report initiatives to support and champion SDGs.
The SDGs are interconnected. They can only be achieved through solid partnerships and multi-stakeholder cooperation. Action on one naturally affects others. That is why the last SDG – SDG17, is meant to ensure that all targets and goals can be reached through partnering and joint initiatives.
SDG17: Partnering for the SDGs
SDG17’s purpose is to “strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”. SDG17 is unique – and Impact17 believes it is the most urgent goal. It is the only SDG to support all targets and initiatives. SDG17 is meant to provide a solid basis for cooperation between countries, academia, public and private organisations at multiple levels – international, national, regional, and local – to jointly achieve the SDGs and other common objectives. It consists of a guideline for improved and fair trade, coordinated investment initiatives and the promotion of sustainable development across borders through partnering.
SDG impact through partnerships
It is only through partnering that we can achieve urgent actions needed to accomplish all the other Global Goals. The worthy trends in the private sector to do more for the Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) would never have been possible without the SDGs as a foundation.
As admirable as the SDGs and the commitments to them may be, and SDG17 in particular, there are only two indicators out of 19 that have anything to do with promoting or supporting partnering for a better world.
Target 16 for SDG 17 is to:
Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals
in all countries.”
But the indicator is the number of “countries tracking multistakeholder monitoring frameworks for the SDGs in a given year.” Unfortunately, nothing to do with the knowledge, expertise, technology and resources that enhance partnerships.
We need to do more.
Target 17 for SDG 17 is to:
Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships
by 2030.
How will we know this is happening? According to the United Nations we need to look at the amount of United States dollars committed to (a) public-private partnerships and (b) civil society partnerships
.
That is not enough.
That’s where Impact17 gets is ambition and its name – It delivers real impact for sustainable development through partnering. It promotes and supports partnering directly with the people involved.
Multisector partnering is important, but real partnerships with local communities are essential. They build sovereignty and enable them to take control of their sustainable future – what some call “localization”. That is where Impact17 focuses its attention for practical impact. That is why we support, promote and assess partnering and partnerships in pursuit of the SDGs. It is why we map partnerships around the world. And it is why we have built a partnership framework to help evaluate and improve partnerships for a sustainable and better world.
Get involved in the SDGs and partnering for a better world
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What are the SDGs?
