This training aims to give you an introduction to Agenda 2030, a global agenda for addressing the world most pressing challenges and driving change toward a sustainable society. The Global Goals of the 2030 Agenda offers an unprecedented opportunity for individuals and local and regional governments (LRGs) to contribute to global sustainability. Localizing the global goals relates both to (i) how individuals can support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through bottom-up action and (ii) to how the global goals can provide a framework for local development.
The training consists of four sections and takes 20-30 minutes to complete.
In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the Resolution 70/1 “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
The Agenda asserts that by 2030, the countries of the world are committed to eradicating poverty and hunger, fighting inequalities and building peaceful, equitable and inclusive societies. Other commitments include realising human rights, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls; and ensuring that the planet and its natural resources remain protected in the long term. The 2030 Agenda delegation has described the agenda as “the global community’s current definition of what sustainable development means”. The 2030 Agenda is also sometimes referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals.
The political declaration is based on numerous declarations and resolutions agreed on and signed by United Nations Member States.
The most important of these include the Beijing Platform for Action / Fourth World Conference on Women’s Rights (1995), the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
The 2030 Agenda includes 17 goals and 169 targets. Together, they balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social, and environmental. A key element of the Agenda is that it will be implemented in partnerships between governments, the private sector, civil society, and the UN system. Implementation is also to be done in solidarity with those who live in poverty and vulnerability across the globe. No one will be left behind.
Funding is crucial for our success in realizing the 2030 Agenda. Individual countries have the primary responsibility towards their citizens to implement the 2030 Agenda. The international community has a particular and shared responsibility for countries facing the greatest challenges and those with the weakest institutions.
How can we know a countries progress towards implementing the 2030 Agenda? - The UN has developed a global indicator framework, and each country regularly reports on developments at the international, national and local level to the UN. In addition to the formal reporting, other regular follow-ups are also done at the local level. These consist of compilations, comparisons and ranking lists of the efforts by municipalities and regions.
Each country has been tasked with coordinating the statistical follow-up on how they will reach the 17 goals and 169 targets in the 2030 Agenda. These efforts are carried out in close cooperation with various other governmental and local authorities and with support from other actors, such as civil society. The progress is tracked by global indicators decided by the UN. National indicators should be tracked and produced by the statistics authority, in collaboration with a number of other authorities, in each country. At the global level, the goals are tracked by more than 230 indicators.
Work to improve follow-up of the 2030 Agenda at the global and national level is ongoing. This means that both indicators and data sources are continuously refined and developed.
Which of the 17 goals makes your heart beat a little faster? What goals are relevant to your agency?
Click on the goals to learn more
The Global Goals for Sustainable Development are integrated and indivisible, which means that no goal can be achieved in isolation. In fact, achieving one goal makes it easier to achieve others. For example, if more people have access to clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), better conditions are created for human health (Goal 3). One concrete outcome is that when the health of children improves, more children can attend school.
The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic have clearly shown how all aspects of sustainability are linked, as well as the importance of global collaboration. In short, the direction pointed out by the 2030 Agenda is more important than ever.We need a holistic approach and cross-sectoral coordination to achieve our goals. Therefore, we cannot work on the 2030 Agenda in isolation or as an individual project. Instead, we must integrate the Agenda into various projects and activities.
Do we really need the 2030 Agenda? Perhaps you think that your country is already doing enough when it comes to sustainability? Perhaps you feel the challenges you and your country face are too far behind?
Whatever situation you and your country are in, there are global challenges that need your help and cooperation to solve. Achieving the goals in the 2030 Agenda means that we are leading a major global transformation and all need to work together to make it a reality. To meet the goals of the 2030 Agenda, we have less than ten years to create a sustainable society. This is the “decade of action”.
The global homicide rate has declined slowly
Almost 75 percent of 113 countries were on track to achieve their national target to integrate biodiversity into national planning
2019 was the second warmest year on record
Investments in climate activities are now higher than investments in fossil fuels
The entire world is working hard towards achieving these goals, but we need accelerated action if we are going to achieve them by 2030.
Many problems in society affect people unequally. Here are some examples.
United Nations. 2020. World social report 2020 inequality in a rapidly changing world. United Nations publication: ST/ESA/372.
United Nations. 2020. SDG Goal. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020
What can statistics say about society and how we progess towards implementing the 2030 Agenda? Statistics are often used as a basis for making decisions, and should be objective and impartial from political manipulation. Their main task is to describe society as it exists. Statistics provide a picture of society in facts and figures. They are important for strengthening and driving implementation of Agenda 2030 as they provide the baseline for monitoring and taking action. For instance, they can show:
Breaking down and reporting statistics on regional and municipal level offers opportunities for regions and municipalities to incorporate Agenda 2030 into their own sustainability work in a clear way. Even keeping personal statistics can help individuals monitor their progress their journey towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.
Change is still not happening at the speed or scale required and we are still facing global challenges for sustainable development. The main challenges identified include eliminating extreme poverty, promoting sustainable consumption and production, and managing the planet’s natural resource base for the benefit of all.
Achieving sustainable development will require global actions to deliver on the legitimate aspiration towards further economic, social and environmetal progress. Everyone and all parts of society - organizations, business, the public sector, researchers and individuals - must participate actively for us to succeed.
While the National Government is ultimately responsible for each county’s implementation of the 2030 Agenda, local and regional government agencies also play an important role.
It is up to local and regional government agencies to implement the Agenda in concrete terms. In fact, one could say that you, as a citizen, a voter, or as a government employee, are already working directly with the 2030 Agenda. In fact, some of the national goals, decided by individual governments, are even more ambitious than the Global Goals.
The 2030 Agenda emphasizes that to achieve the goals, it is necessary that all social actors are involved and take a shared responsibility. The Agenda presupposes that attitudes and behaviors change, at both the individual and society level. Creating and developing a means of dialogue is needed for the Agenda to be implemented
You are needed for your country to succeed in its commitment to implement the 2030 Agenda. Your skills, experience, contact network and commitment are crucial both now and for future generations.
Change takes time. Everyone must work towards the same goal to speed up the rate of change. You have great potential to contribute to new and innovative processes and paths to achieve the goals in the 2030 Agenda.
What is needed to implement the 2030 Agenda? The deciding factor for success is the involvement and cooperation of all parts of society. This can be illustrated by eight building blocks that represent essential structures, processes and working methods. All the building blocks are connected, and all are equally important. As an individual, you can make a difference by contributing to any of the building blocks.
You may be wondering whether you, as an individual citizen, can really make a difference in the work on the 2030 Agenda. The answer is unequivocally YES, you can! Here are a few tips on what you can do in your workplace.
How well we manage to implement the 2030 Agenda and achieve the Global Goals largely depends on how well various social partners cooperate. To achieve the goals effectively, government agencies, civil society, businesses, and other stakeholders must coordinate their efforts.
Prerequisites for successful collaboration:
There are already established networks and forums for achieving the SDGs in all countries. Look into what networks exist in yours. Additionally, there are several international networks and forums to help your local authorities meet the Global Goals. Here are a few of them.
The SDG Academy is SDSN's flagship education initiative. They bring together the world’s experts to create and deliver educational content on critical issues for the future of people and planet, including health, education, climate change, agriculture and food systems, and sustainable investment.
Localizing the SDGs is a network and platform that supports the on-the-ground delivery of the SDGs, with a focus on those furthest behind. It is a convergence point between local and regional governments and their associations, national governments, businesses, community-based organizations and other local actors, and the United Nations system.
The Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments is a coordination and consultation mechanism that brings together the major international networks of local governments to undertake joint advocacy work relating to global policy processes.
UCLG, as a global network of cities and local, regional, and metropolitan governments and their associations, is committed to representing, defending, and amplifying the voices of local and regional governments to leave no-one and no place behind.
The Regional Forum on Sustainable Development follows up on and reviews the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the UNECE region.
The HLPF is the main United Nations platform on sustainable development and it has a central role in the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global level.
We hope that you now have a better understanding of the 2030 Agenda, and how important you and your colleagues are for its implementation. You may even have ideas on how you can work towards the goals of the Agenda in your own role. Don’t underestimate your ability to make a difference! Trust in the power of community. As a final step, you now have a chance to test your knowledge.
Thank you for taking the time to go through this training. We hope you enjoyed it and that it will come to good use.
We hope that you now have a better grasp of the 2030 Agenda and what it means for you. You can learn more about the 2030 Agenda for more inspiration. Below, we have collected links to the websites of various authorities and organizations, as well as documents about the Agenda that we think may be of interest to you. Good luck!
This training on the Sustainable Development Goals has been adapted from the The Swedish Statistics Bureau “Agenda 2030 training for Swedish Government Employees” to reach an international audience by ICLD.
