A symbol on non-violence, ‘The Knotted Gun’ continues to attract UN visitors.

By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter


The implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will entail a lot of work and will be more difficult to put into action than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially at the country level, Amina Mohamed, special adviser to the United Nations (UN) secretary-general on Post-2015 Development Planning, has said.
“It is going to be much more difficult because when you get down to countries, they will need to understand their targets better,” she noted. “It is a work that is not done as a programme or a project in itself but as a whole government approach to this.” “What this set of goals does is a response to what we all agree - the existing challenges and the emerging ones that we are seeing. This has to be taken in every one’s context,” she added.
Mohamed was among the resource speakers at the recently held UN Foundations 2015 Global Issues Press Fellowship in New York.
Also known as Global Goals, the 17 new initiatives will replace the MDGs due to expire by the end of this year. The UN aims to achieve specific targets for each goal over the next 15 years.
“Everyone is going to be uncomfortable and if we are not uncomfortable, then we are not doing the job we set up to do for the SDGs,” she said.
Mohamed cited the migration crisis in Europe which had become difficult for people to even comprehend.  Similar crisis is also happening in Africa and in the Arab world but she noted that it did not get any serious response until it hit many European countries.
She said people had been sitting in silos dealing with pieces of the crisis using a bandage approach.
However, the UN official noted that everyone has got a mandate “or a place where they are committed to.” While many are claiming the gender equality goal, she said this scenario can be used as “docking station” for the 16 other SDGs.
At the local level, the UN official believes that states need to take the SDGs on board, breaking it down from the national level and focusing on how to achieve the goals within their plan.
She also reiterated the importance of knowing the country’s plans and policies before starting to design programmes within different partnerships.
“I know each state has its plan and so we will have a conversation: ‘where are you on that plan?’ and what are the gaps and how can our partnerships and programmes help to fill those gaps so we will have those same direction,” she said.
Giving an example, Mohamed said her non-governmental organisation (NGO) has initiated an education programme in Nigeria where 150 young students benefited from it.
The NGO helped teachers in making their own teaching aids to speed up English and Math workshops, teaching large class sizes.
She said she had seen a lot of progress in the programme in terms of quality and many women in education are getting into decision making roles because the NGO helped build their capacities.
“But it needs us to pull together and the opportunity is how do we all pull together, what sort of partnerships better defined, how do we engage with parliaments, with governments, and with business to do the bits that we need to do,” Mohamed pointed out.

1.      End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
2.      End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
3.      Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
4.      Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
5.      Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
6.      Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
7.      Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
8.      Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
9.      Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation.
10.  Reduce inequality within and among countries.
11.  Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
12.  Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
13.  Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
14.  Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
15.  Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
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.
17.  Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.