One Planet, One Future
Countries all across the world are making great strides to improve health outcomes and protect the environment. This is not my planet nor your planet.
One planet
One future
So what are Sustainable Development Goals and what are countries across the globe doing to achieve these goals?
What are the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals?
In 1922 at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, more than 178 countries came together to adopt Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan aimed to protect human health all while maintaining a sustainable future for both developed and developing countries alike. Since the adoption of Agenda 21, global partnerships adopted the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 outlining 8 goals listed to the bottom left with the overarching mission to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, promote gender equality and reduce child mortality in half by 2015. As 2015 approached, many targets were either met or unmet at varying lengths of time utilizing various methods. From the lessons learned and data gathered from the Millennium Development Goals, was the birth of Sustainable Development Goals. In 2013, the General Assembly set up a 30 member Open Working Group to begin the development of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 2015 not only marked the end of the Millennium Development Goals but was a memorable year for international policy and multilateralism that marked the adoption of several major agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
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Sustainable development is a global agenda that aims to improve lives all across the world regardless of education, class, race, gender, and other social determinants of health. Below you will find look at two of the sustainable development goals and the respective targets and a few indicators as well as and examples of countries that are successfully striving towards a more sustainable and healthy future for everyone.
Millennium Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goals
Zero Hunger
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Targets
Indicators
2.1
By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
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2.2
By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
2.1.1
Prevalence of undernourishment
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2.1.2
Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)
2.2.1
Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
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2.2.2
Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
2.3
By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
2.3.1
Volume of production per labour unit by classes of farming/pastoral/forestry enterprise size
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2.3.2
Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status
Climate Action
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact
Targets
Indicators
13.1
Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries
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13.1.3
Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national disaster risk reduction strategies
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13.1.1
Number of deaths, missing persons and persons affected by disaster per 100,000 people
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13.1.2
Number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies
13.2
Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning
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13.2.1
Number of countries that have communicated the establishment or operationalization of an integrated policy/strategy/plan which increases their ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development in a manner that does not threaten food production (including a national adaptation plan, nationally determined contribution, national communication, biennial update report or other)
13.3
Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
13.3.1
Number of countries that have integrated mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning into primary, secondary and tertiary curricula
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13.3.2
Number of countries that have communicated the strengthening of institutional, systemic and individual capacity-building to implement adaptation, mitigation and technology transfer, and development actions
Success Stories
As a global agenda, learning what other countries have successfully implemented to reach various Sustainable Development Goals is valuable in order to capture, share and hear stories of successes that continue to happen on a daily basis whether we see them or not! Below are two stories of successes that continue to save and protect lives today and everyday into the future.
Indonesia’s Total Sanitation and Sanitation Marketing Program
Over one billion people lack basic sanitary facilities globally meaning no access to clean, private, and sanitary places to go for natural human functions. Due to the lack of access to sanitary facilities, people turn to open defecation that not only degrades the environment but can cause pathogens to find their way into the food system causing diarrhea and other illnesses such as polio. In 2005, 27% of Indonesians were estimated to practice open defecation and was not only a high cost to the country but produces a large burden of disease.
Thus, Indonesia developed water and sanitation projects in during the 20th century had focused on the construction of and financing for communal private sanitary facilities but failed to address behavior change. In 2003, field staff from the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) found a potential solution, a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) program that heavily emphasized self-motivated, community-level behavior change.
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By 2011, 2,200 communities in East Java, Indonesia was verified as open defecation free as well as a 30% reduction in diarrhea prevalence.
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Kenya’s Social Cash Transfer Program
1.7 million Kenyan children had lost one or both parents. Deprived of parental love and protection in developing years, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) are faced with loss of financial and family support, physical and emotional risks of hunger, mental illnesses, school dropout, and exploitation. Many OVC's are near extreme poverty with minimal resources.
Thus, UNICEF stimulated public and political support to engineer a Call to Action campaign demanding free access to education as well as increased social protection resources that led to a cash transfer program.
By 2015, 480,000 Kenyan children were benefitting from cash transfers, there was a 35% reduction in absolute poverty, short-term increase in food and health expenditures, young women had greater protection against various gender-based outcomes such as early pregnancies, improved mental health, and developed a baseline level of support for the most vulnerable children in Kenya.
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goals requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
-Martin Luther King