20 June 2017
SDG Advocates Highlight Inequalities and Crisis of Ethics, Trust
Photo by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth
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A special event with global champions of the SDGs highlighted inequalities and a lack of trust and ethics in the public sphere as barriers to SDG implementation.

The SDG Advocates are appointed by the UN Secretary-General to promote efforts to achieve the SDGs.

7 June 2017: A special event with global champions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlighted inequalities and a lack of trust and ethics in the public sphere as barriers to SDG implementation. The SDG Advocates, a group of leaders appointed by the UN Secretary-General to promote efforts to achieve the SDGs, called for unselfishness and courageous leadership in the public sphere, as well as channeling of resources toward the most vulnerable, especially through education and healthcare.

The Advocates addressed participants at a special event during EU Development Days, in Brusssels, Belgium, on 7 June 2017. EU Development Days are organized annually by the European Commission as a forum for aid donors and development agencies to share ideas and experiences, and to build partnerships. Speaking at the event, Frans Timmermans, European Commission, said global solidarity must be strengthened to ensure that no one is left behind.

The SDG Advocates present included Nobel Laureates Leymah Gbowee and Muhammad Yunus, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute, Paul Polman of Unilever, and Alaa Murabit of The Voice of Libyan Women. Queen Mathilde called for investing in people first, especially through health and education. She highlighted the need to remember and care for children in war zones.

Yunus said the current situation of high inequality is “a ticking time bomb.”

Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank to serve the poor, called for a shift “away from selfishness and towards selflessness” in the structure of work and industry. He noted that replacing the employer-employee model with the entrepreneur model has resulted in resources being sucked to the top, and warned that the current situation of high inequality is “a ticking time bomb.”

Polman highlighted the importance of personal ethics as a basis for action, and called for responsibility to future generations, courageous leadership and greater transparency to “restore the trust that is the basis of prosperity.” Gbowee and Murabit called for translating the SDGs into language that people can understand, in terms that relate to their personal lives, so that all can take ownership of this global agenda. Sachs stressed that needed financial resources are available, and that diverting just 1% of global output to services for the world’s most vulnerable people would make available US$1 trillion for needs such as basic healthcare.

The 17-member SDG Advocates group was launched at the World Economic Forum on 21 January 2017. The Advocates are mandated to support the UN Secretary-General and engage stakeholders in the global effort to achieve the SDGs by 2030. [European Commission Press Release on Special Event] [UN Press Release on Special Event] [UN Webpage on SDG Advocates] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on European Development Days]

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