Sustainable Development Goals

We all have a responsibility

On Monday 25^th January 2016 pupils Milly and Ljilja in Lower IV presented an assembly to the senior school about ‘Sustainable Development Goals’, something about which they feel passionately.

‘In December 2015, during their topic about ‘Food’ in Geography, Miss Keep taught a lesson about Poverty and Fair Trade, and how every individual holds the power to prevent poverty from occurring’ explained Ljilja. ‘We wanted to raise awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals, to express to the rest of the school how a simple action like buying Fair Trade goods can increase the quality of life of farmers across the globe’.

The Sustainable Development Goals arose out of ‘The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)’ in 2000.  There were originally eight international development goals resulting from the Millennium Summit of the United Nations.  The UN has 189 United Member states who committed themselves to help achieve the goals by 2015.  In June (2015) at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) the governments reviewed the goals and developed the original eight goals into seventeen goals outlined below:

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt reserve land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

To raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals, Milly and Ljilja asked the students to pick one goal as a form group which they felt was the most important to achieve, and to take a photo of their form holding their goal. It is important to think of the effect the developed world has on the developing world and, more importantly, of the power we hold as consumers to change this so the world can become a better and more equal place in which to live.