Archive for category: Sustainable Development Goals

, , ,

What Is Smallholder Market Support?

Smallholder Market Support
What is smallholder market support? Through the continued and increased bolstering of small-scale producers, it may be the best way to achieve Zero Hunger.

The Zero Hunger Challenge, launched in 2012, combines all five elements of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an effort to “end hunger, eliminate all forms of malnutrition, and build inclusive and sustainable food systems.”

One of the U.N.’s SDGs is to bring an end to rural poverty by increasing the incomes of small-scale producers and thus increasing their productivity. The success of small-scale farmers is essential to the success of the Zero Hunger Challenge and feeding the growing population. Increasing smallholders’ productivity starts with improving their livelihoods, and this is where smallholder market support comes in.

Smallholder farmers make up the majority of the world’s impoverished people, despite the fact they produce most of the world’s food. Smallholder farmers face many challenges that hinder their capacities. These challenges include a lack of post-harvest management, suitable storage and productive markets or financing. This is not to mention the challenge farmers face in producing enough to make it through the season and generating a small surplus, a goal not easily achieved.

The World Food Programme has developed innovative solutions that has aided two million smallholder farmers in 60 countries in their agricultural development. Two of the most profound solutions include Purchase for Progress (P4P) and Home-Grown School Feeding.

P4P aids in connecting smallholders to larger markets and, in turn, widening their range of crops and broadening business opportunities. Home-Grown School Feeding links domestic smallholders with national schools to supplement their meal systems. Both of these programs, among many other effective agendas implemented, utilize private-sector and government systems to support smallholders.

These efforts are not only humane and ethical–they are sustainable. The question remains for many: what is smallholder market support and why should it be encouraged and funded? Smallholder market support has the long-term ability to turn current recipients of agricultural assistance into our future global food producers. Smallholder market support can eliminate world hunger within our lifetimes.

– Catherine Fredette

Photo: Flickr

, , ,

Poor Living Conditions for Those Who Live in Slums

Live in Slums
Between 2000 and 2014, the percentage of the urban population in developing countries who lived in slums decreased from 39 percent to 30 percent.  While these statistics are encouraging, the bottom line is that the number of people living in slums continues to grow. Globally, 828 million people live in slums today. This fact means that one in eight people in the world suffers from poor living conditions.

A slum, as defined by United Nations Habitat, is a household that may suffer one or more of the following conditions: lack of access to water protected from outside contamination, lack of access to sanitation facilities that separate human waste from human contact and lack of adequate living area (more than three people living in one room of four square meters minimum).  These conditions also include a lack of housing durability (the structure must be on non-hazardous land and must be able to withstand extremes in climate) and a lack of security of tenure (protection by the state to ensure the unlawful eviction of inhabitants of homes).

For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. However, urban areas only account for three percent of the earth’s land. Over 90 percent of urban growth is occurring in developing nations. The increase of people living in cities can predictably rise to 60 percent in 2030 and to 66 percent by 2050.

There are approximately 200,000 slums throughout the world. Mexico City is the home to the largest slum in the world. The Neza-chalco-Itza province began developing in the early 1900s and today houses roughly four million people. A younger slum in Karachi, Pakistan is only ten years old and houses 1.5 million citizens over 22 square miles.

Some other large slums include Mumbai, India, where Dharavi houses one million people in one square mile. The slum of Khayelitsha began after abolishing apartheid in South Africa and grew since the 1980s to 2.4 million people. Fifty percent of its inhabitants are under 19 years old. Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa, has the highest population of more than 200 slum dwellings located in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi. 2.5 million people dispersed amongst these 200 slum dwellings represent only six percent of the land in the city. Kibera houses 250,000 of these people.

Urbanization is a key focus under the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals. The eleventh goal on this list is to make cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. The task of establishing anti-poverty measures and reducing global poverty can improve the urban areas where the slums reside. When the poor no longer have to live in slums, their quality of life will improve.

– Jene Cates

Photo: Flickr

, , ,

What Are Sustainable Development Goals?


The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as “Transforming Our World”, are part of a U.N. initiative adopted in September 2015. The SDGs are designed to build on the Millennium Development Goals.

As former U.N. Development Program (UNDP) administrator Helen Clark explained, the goals “provide us with a common plan and agenda to tackle some of the pressing challenges facing our world such as poverty, climate change and conflict.” The 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals includes 17 global goals, which are as follows.

17 Sustainable Development Goals

  1. No Poverty: An end to global poverty means ensuring a sustainable livelihood for all people.
  2. Zero Hunger: Work to achieve food security, improved nutrition, and the promotion of sustainable agriculture.
  3. Good Health and Wellbeing: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing through universal health coverage, production of safe and affordable medicines and vaccines and funding for research and development.
  4. Quality Education: Ensure that all boys and girls get free primary and secondary education and access to affordable vocational training, without experiencing gender and wealth biases.
  5. Gender Equality: Gender equality and female empowerment is a human right, as well as a necessity for sustainable development.
  6. Clean Water and Sanitation: Universal access to safe and affordable water requires investment by the international community in infrastructure and sanitation facilities, and taking steps to protect and restore forests, mountains, wetlands, and rivers.
  7. Affordable and Clean Energy: Critical to the achievement of many other SDGs, investing in infrastructure and technology to provide clean energy will also cause economic growth in developing countries.
  8. Decent Work and Economic Growth: Promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth and employment for all people.
  9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure: Industrialization creates jobs and generates income, reducing poverty and increasing living standards for all people. Technological innovation encourages development and provides new jobs.
  10. Reduced Inequalities: Reducing income inequality, as well as inequalities based on race, sex, age, and other statuses, requires improvement in policies and regulations, promoting economic inclusion.
  11. Sustainable Cities and Communities: Most of those who are living in extreme poverty reside in cities. Achieving sustainable development in cities requires providing access to affordable housing, investing in public transportation, and improving urban planning.
  12. Responsible Consumption and Production: Countries must change the way they produce and consume goods, minimizing the toxic materials used and waste generated in the production and consumption processes.
  13. Climate Action: Climate change affects every country. The international community is working together to develop sustainable low-carbon pathways to the future, and mobilizing $100 billion annually, by 2020, to meet the needs of developing countries.
  14. Life Below Water: Marine pollution has reached critical levels – every square kilometer of the ocean has an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic litter. Sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems from pollution and the impact of ocean acidification is extremely important.
  15. Life On Land: Forests make up 30 percent of the Earth’s surface. They provide habitats for millions of animal, insect, and plant species, and are sources for clean air and water. The goal is to conserve and restore forests, wetlands, drylands and mountains by 2020.
  16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions: 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. Partnerships for the Goals: Strengthen the means of implementation, and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

These 17 SDGs are bold and will require continued strong leadership to achieve. Many countries succeeded in achieving their Millennium Development Goals, so while there is a difficult road ahead it is not an impossible task to create a more prosperous and sustainable world for all.

– Mary Barringer

Photo: Flickr

, ,

UN Secretary-General Calls for a System Overhaul to Achieve the SDGs


In her first official statement as U.N. Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed called for a new approach to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She gave her speech to the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) operational activities segment, which met between February 28 and March 2, 2017.

Participants at this year’s ECOSOC meeting discussed increasing coordination, accountability and transparency in the U.N.’s approach to the SDGs. In her address, Mohammed stated that to achieve the SDGs would require all countries to “redefine traditional planning, delivery and monitoring.”

Mohammed has a track record of fighting for the environment. She has held positions as the former Minister of the Environment of Nigeria, the founder of the Center for Development Policy Solutions and a professor for the Master’s in Development Practice program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Mohammed’s past achievements show her commitment to the SDGs. In her address she said that, “achieving the SDGs is not an option, but an imperative for a safe and secure future of prosperity, opportunity and human rights for all.” The SDGs are an investment in preventing crises from forming out of global challenges like poverty, climate change, environment and hunger.

Mohammed believes that achieving the SDGs will require the U.N. to take more initiative. While the U.N. is actively engaged in efforts to achieve the SDGs, policy and framework has expanded immensely since the creation of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. For example, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda laid out specific guidelines for implementing the SGDs in 2015, and the Inter-agency Task Force was created in 2016 to analyze progress. Only time will tell what developments will come in the future.

– Josh Ward

Photo: Flickr

, ,

“Small Smurfs, Big Goals” and US Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goals
“Smurfs: The Lost Village” and the U.N. are working together on the Small Smurfs, Big Goals campaign. The campaign aims to promote the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The International Day of Happiness, which the U.N. has celebrated since 2013 on March 20, was central to this campaign.

Demi Lovato, Joe Manganeilio and Mandy Patinkin, three of the main voice actors from the “Smurfs: The Lost Village” movie, came to the International Model U.N. Conference to honor a few students for their projects to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Karan Jerath, a 20-year-old, created a device to protect marine life from oil spills. Sarina Davin, a 17-year-old, helped with a U.N. girl empowerment program. Noor Samee, also 17, blogs for UNICEF about social justice issues.

Patinkin, who plays Papa Smurf in the film, congratulated the students at the conference.

“On behalf of all Smurfdom,” he said, “thank you for your work in awakening everything, in your community, through your social media, all over the world, in the ways that you have chosen to encourage people everywhere to make this world a better place for those who are so vulnerable in every way imaginable.”

Each of the students received a symbolic key to Smurf Village.

The visit to the International Model U.N. Conference was one way the Small Smurfs, Big Goals campaign honored the International Day of Happiness and the SDGs. On March 20, the Smurf cast and the U.N. lit the Empire State building blue.

On the Small Smurfs, Big Goals website, visitors can take a quiz to find which Smurf they are most like based on the issues they care about. Then, they can share their smurfs and support or learn more about what they can do to support these issues.

The campaign also has a lesson plan for elementary school teachers to use “Smurfs: Lost Village” to teach children about SDGs.

World leaders in September 2015 adopted the SDGs for 2030 and implemented them in January 2016. The SDGs build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs.) The goals focus on education, equality, access to jobs and other key issues.

– Jennifer Taggart

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Organizations Partner for Global Internet Access


Global internet access creates an equal playing field for both the most and least developed countries in our world socially, politically, and economically. Bridging the digital divide requires hard work from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Part of the U.N.’s goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to “significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in the least developed countries by 2020.”

In 2015, 54 percent of people in developing countries reported using the internet at least occasionally. Eighty-seven percent reported using the internet in developed countries in the same year.

The World Economic Forum described how the internet boosts economies in developing countries through increasing efficiency and productivity in many industries, and also provides financial, health, and educational services to those in developing countries.

Also, social media empowers people to rebel against dictatorships. For example, in 2011, Egyptian citizens organized protests against former President Hosni Mubarak using Facebook and Twitter. Similarly, in 2013, Turkish citizens turned to social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Ustream, and Vine for information on protests, since formal media outlets were censored.

So Who’s Involved?

There are many different sectors working toward global connectivity. Google Alphabet is working on Project Loon, allowing for global internet coverage through balloons. Project Loon is a project under X, Google Alphabet’s moonshot (technological innovation) factory. Google is not the only major technology company getting involved in global connectivity. Facebook has the Connectivity Labs, and Microsoft has the Affordable Access Initiative.

One major organization that helps promote global connectivity is the Alliance for Affordable Internet. This organization focuses on reforming regulations and policies in various nations through forming on-the-ground coalitions in each nation, with representatives in the public and private sectors. Facebook, Google, and other businesses and nonprofits are members of the Alliance for Affordable Internet.

In late January, the Digital Gap Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Digital Gap Act is a foreign policy bill that aims to increase internet access for those around the globe, especially for rural farmers and women.

Many different sectors will have to work together in order to successfully achieve the important goal of global internet access.

– Jennifer Taggart

Photo: Flickr

,

6th World Sustainability Forum Held in Cape Town

At the end of January, Cape Town, South Africa played host to the 6th World Sustainability Forum. The journal Sustainability sponsored this international scientific conference. The Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) organizes the annual World Sustainability Forum. The forum includes the presentation of research in many areas relating to sustainability and sustainable development.

Sustainable Development Goals

The 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, motivated discussions at the 2017 conference. The sustainability agenda outlined by the U.N. has the main aim that “countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change while ensuring that no one is left behind.” Madame Graca Machel, a member of the SDGs Advocacy Group of the United Nations, was one of the keynote speakers at the conference.

Key Messages

The themes of this year’s forum were environmental management and social and economic development. There were key national and international speakers in attendance, including world-renowned professor of economics Jeffrey Sachs, who is also director of the Center for Sustainable Development and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Sachs’ messages in his presentation included:

  • Africa needs to significantly increase its investment rates, which would increase its overall growth rate and decrease poverty.
  • The time to end poverty in Africa started in 2015 has to continue through 2030. Doing so will allow it to “become one of the most dynamic centers of the world economy.”
  • Investments in technology are essential steps in overcoming poverty.

Sachs went on to say that “achieving the SDGs is the moonshot for our generation […] when 193 governments agree on something […] that is really something for us to grab hold of. That is a lifeline.” Plans are already underway for next year’s conference, which will be held in Beijing.

– Kristin Westad

Photo: Flickr

, , ,

Sustainable Development Goals: Create Economic Opportunities

Economic OpportunitiesThe United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, intend to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. The 17 interrelated goals aim to work towards an economic model which is not only environmentally sustainable but also turns poverty, inequality and lack of financial access into new opportunities for businesses, especially in developing countries.

The Business and Sustainable Development Commission recently released a report on the role of business in working towards the SDGs and how the goals create economic opportunities in developing countries. According to this report, by seizing opportunities in high growth sectors (like food and agriculture, cities, energy and materials, and health and wellbeing), achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will create an estimated $12 trillion in economic growth. Over half of this growth will be in developing countries. The goals also offer an opportunity to create up to 340 million new jobs in developing countries by 2030.

To capture these opportunities, companies and entrepreneurs will have to use innovative and game-changing business models. One of these is the circular economy business model. A circular economy is an alternative to the traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which resources are kept in use for as long as possible by recovering and reusing spent materials and products. This model aligns to SDG12 – responsible consumption and production.

Another market that could benefit greatly from the circular economy business model and offer substantial growth opportunities in developing countries (an estimated $810 billion by 2030) is the automotive industry. While collection rates for vehicles at the end of their life in Europe and elsewhere in the industrialized world are generally very high, it is not an effective process. Most collected vehicles are recycled into their base materials, a process which is energy-intensive and results in loss of value.

Many developing countries, however, have developed robust car repair and refurbishing industries because they cannot afford new cars. Rather, these countries import used vehicles from industrialized countries. In Nigeria, for example, 95 percent of cars are second-hand.

Ghana is another such an example. In a neighborhood called Suame Magazine, an estimated 200,000 artisans take discarded western cars and use the parts to build easily repairable vehicles that are more suitable for African roads. Car parts are also used to build anything from fences and swings to water pumps and welding machines.

These are just some of the ways that illustrate that by rethinking the approach to consumption and production, the Sustainable Development Goals create economic opportunities in developing countries while also addressing the issues of poverty and environmental sustainability.

– Helena Jacobs

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Power to The People: Reaching Sustainable Development Goals

Power to The People: Reaching Sustainable Development GoalsSustainable development goals, also known as Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is comprised of 17 global goals that elucidates 169 targets. The goals were founded by the U.N., and are listed as follows:

  1. End global poverty
  2. Achieve food security, thereby ending world hunger
  3. Ensure healthcare for everyone
  4. Make education accessible to all
  5. Achieve gender equality
  6. Ensure availability to sanitary water for all
  7. Provide jobs and sustainable economic growth
  8. Build resilient infrastructure and foster innovation
  9. Make cities and other dense human settlements inclusive and safe
  10. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
  11. Take urgent action to combat climate change by regulating emissions
  12. Conserve and use marine resources sustainably
  13. Switch to affordable and clean energy
  14. Reduce income inequalities
  15. Protect and conserve the biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems
  16. Provide access to justice for all
  17. Strengthen global partnership

While it is important for the global community to focus on the macro-cosmic picture of tackling these issues, having local governments and citizens face these issues is equally vital. Beneficiaries are often the last group to be consulted about the efforts that are being implemented to help their lives. Problem solving that addresses the specific needs of different communities is so beneficial because it does not focus on one overarching idea, but rather the specific needs of the people within the community.

With the global community and local communities working simultaneously, there is a greater chance for more widespread empathetic progress being made in terms of achieving sustainable development goals worldwide. One of the largest problems is that those who have political power are not impoverished and those who are impoverished do not have political power.

Thus, poverty is often overlooked by those in seats of power. This starts with education. If education is made available to those people who are impoverished, then they are being given an effective say in their communities, and therefore some degree of power.

Eradication of global poverty will not happen unless we are able to give power over to the people who are impoverished and thereby have a more nuanced understanding of the situations that they themselves face. This empowers people in lower income communities to receive an education, making it possible for them to impart the change they want to see in their communities.

However, this is still a tandem effort. By supporting the Education for All Act, a bipartisan initiative that would advance basic education worldwide while protecting U.S. security interests, even those who are citizens of developed nations can help to empower individuals to reach sustainable development goals in developing nations to help themselves and their communities.

– Kayla Provencher

Photo: Flickr

, , ,

Water For People: Ending Water Scarcity Through Infrastructure

Ending Water ScarcityAn international organization believes in ending water scarcity in developing countries. Water For People is a non-profit that focuses on establishing proper infrastructure and sanitation to remedy the lack of clean water around the globe.

They are especially concerned with the impact water scarcity has on women and girls, who often bear the burden for water collection.

They work at the ground level to build trust within the community and by tailoring their solutions to the issues at hand. Local governments, community members and business owners are all required to co-invest, ensuring that all partners have an equal stake in the results. This collaboration allows for a better understanding of the abilities of a community to finance and maintain the projects for the future.

The U.N. states that more than 2 billion people are affected by water scarcity. That figure is expected to rise due to climate change. This is especially problematic for developing countries struggling with poverty.

According to Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group, “Economic growth in some regions could be cut by as much as six percent because of water scarcity alone.”

That is why one of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 includes improved access to clean water and sanitation. There are several targets for doing so, including moves to:

  1. End open defecation, which can threaten the viability of water resources;
  2. Improve water quality by reducing pollution, dumping and the release of hazardous materials;
  3. Protect and restore water-related ecosystems;
  4. Support the participation of local communities in improving water management;

This last target is where Water For People comes in. The organization, which was established by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) in 1991, has provided access to clean water in nine developing countries: Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and India.

Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global head of water, sanitation and hygiene put it simply: “No matter where you look, access to clean drinking water makes a difference in the lives of people.”

The fight for ending water scarcity is ongoing but there continues to be an increase in access to clean water thanks to Water For People.

– Sabrina Santos
Photo: Flickr