SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals – Embedding the Sustainable Development Goals in Learning
This blog post is part of a series around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each post will dive into one of the goals and how we as educators can strive to embed these into our own courses. It is in the author’s opinion that any course or class can connect with one of the 17 goals or 169 sub-targets. By providing this blog post series, we hope to elicit some ideas of how you might also integrate a global goal into your teaching. Please refer to the USask SDG Teaching & Learning Workbook, review the USask Sustainability in the Curricula website, or scroll down for more information about the SDGs.
SDG 17 aims to revitalize and enhance the ability for governments, civil society, the private sector, the UN and other stakeholders to mobilize the necessary resources. Improving effective support for developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island states, is essential to equal progress for all. Failing to leverage global partnerships will result in wasted money, wasted time and wasted lives. When governments, businesses and civil society focus on their areas of expertise and collaborate on solutions, we can improve efficiency and ensure everyone is aware of the priority actions they can take to address their areas of responsibility.
You might also be able to align your teaching to this SDG if you want your students to be able to:
- Address global issues, and the importance of global multi-stakeholder partnerships and the shared accountability for sustainable development.
- Articulate and measure indicators of progress on sustainable development.
- Create awareness campaigns about the importance of global partnerships for sustainable development.
- Collaborate to promote global partnerships for sustainable development and demand government accountability for the SDGs.
- Describe behaviours of active, critical, global and sustainable citizens.
- Design policies promoting global partnerships and sustainable development.
You might consider having your students reflect, share, act in some of these ways:
- Encourage students to find groups in your local community that seeks to mobilize action on the implementation of the SDGs.
- Partner with businesses for the implementation of the SDGs. Start making the links between research, teaching, industry, and public organizations.
- Stay connected on social media and tell people about your SDG work by using the hashtag #GlobalGoals. Keep track of how your country is doing to meet their commitments.
- Connect with schools in your community to implement a shared resource program or a combined activity day to encourage shared action and partnerships. Join together for a mini conference, a project fair or something else that gets everyone involved and engaged.
Some curricular connections and questions for students might be:
| Media
How is development reported in the media? What role does the media play in ensuring the Global Goals are met? |
Oppression and genocide
How does oppression impact the distribution of social, economic, and political benefits of development? |
| Environment
How can development remain environmentally conscious? |
Gender politics
What are important considerations for ensuring gender equality in international development? |
| Poverty, wealth and power
How are “North-South” partnerships for poverty reduction changing development? Do wealthy countries have unique obligations to implement the Global Goals? |
Social justice and human rights
What basic human rights are affected by the Global Goals? How will achieving the Global Goals improve human rights around the world? |
| Indigenous Peoples
Why is Indigenous knowledge important in creating sustainable development policies and practices? How can Indigenous knowledge be incorporated into procedures? |
Health and biotechnology
How can we work together globally to ensure Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being for all? Can biotechnology play a role? |
| Peace and conflict
How does war and conflict affect our ability to reach the Global Goals? How can we encourage peace and conflict mediation at a local, national, and international level? |
WHAT ARE THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS?
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals — also known as the SDGs or the Global Goals —came into effect on January 1, 2016 following an historic United Nations Summit in September 2015. 193 governments from around the world agreed to implement the Goals within their own countries in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Over the next fifteen years, with these new Goals that universally apply to all, countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.
These new, interconnected goals build on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, while also identifying new priority areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among others.
Although each country faces specific challenges in pursuit of sustainable development, special attention is given to the most vulnerable countries, in particular, African countries, less developed countries, landlocked countries and small island developing states. There are also serious challenges within many middle-income countries.
For each of the 17 goals, there is a list of specific targets we aim to reach. The targets discussed in this guide have been summarized for ease of reading. For a more detailed list of all the 169 targets, visit GlobalGoals.org.
This content has been adapted from the original by the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning and the University of Saskatchewan from the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation. Users are free to download, copy, print and share this resource as needed, and adapt for their classroom or non-commercial use.
If you adapt or build on this work, please let MCIC or USask know! gmctl@usask.ca
Sustainable Foundations: A Guide for Teaching the Sustainable Development Goals by the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Original document http://mcic.ca/uploads/public/files-sf/SF-Full-FINAL-WEB-ISBN-2021-EN.pdf
