Transforming Our World: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Lessons

2. • Getting to Know the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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     In 2012, during the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil and the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit, the world's leaders set in motion the process that would lead to the adoption of the SDGs in 2015. In this lesson, we walk through the history of the sustainable development agenda.

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   • Sustainable Development Plans

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     The 17 SDGs provide a collective ambition for the planet. To achieve the SDGs, the next step is to create Sustainable Development Plans at the country level. These strategies are essentially backcasting exercises that use the SDGs as an end point from which to plan backwards to the current day and that carefully contextualize the SDGs for the country in question.

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   • Technology, Innovation, and the SDGs

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     The achievement of the SDGs depends heavily on the application of innovative and modern thinking and technologies. This is particularly critical for challenges such as the decarbonization of the economy to mitigate the effects of climate change. Information and communication technologies also present unique opportunities for a range of sectors.

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   • Good Governance and the SDGs

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     Global cooperation is critical to achieve the SDGs. In particular, cities have a critical role in pioneering Sustainable Development planning in collectively contributing to the ambition of sustainable development. Efficiently disseminating the necessary technologies, knowledge, and best practices and mobilizing financing are foundational for the achievement of the goals. Both rely heavily on global cooperation and the effective deployment of public-private partnerships.

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   • Business and the SDGs

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     The SDGs are not an agenda for policy makers alone. Most of the world's economic activity, knowledge generation, and investment is driven by an efficient private sector. And while you cannot have a strong private sector without an effective and structured public sector, business must play a role in sustainable development.

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   • Universities and the SDGs

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     Universities around the world are fundamental to the Sustainable Development Agenda and share a core responsibility in advancing the agenda in their respective countries. Universities, serving as hubs of innovation, accelerate exponentially the creation and exchange of knowledge and generate an ecosystem in which solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges can collectively be addressed by academia, business, and civil society.

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   • Final Exam

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     Final Exam

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