The sustainable development goals were formed in 2015 during the year’s United Nations General Assembly, they were set to cover a wide range of social issues of the world including poverty, hunger, climate change and life on earth in general to mention a few all to be achieved by 2030. These goals have been acted upon since then through several mediums and here is the breakdown of the SDGs, seventeen of them in all.
The first goal is themed “No Poverty” which seeks to end poverty in all forms everywhere on earth, although our world has seen a very huge decrease in poverty rate since 1990, one out of every five persons still live on less than a dollar a day. Although poverty is defined as the inadequacy of the resource and income of an individual or family to enable them have a good standard of living, I believe it is much more than such as it deteriorates to hunger, lack of social needs and so on. The second goal is themed “Zero Hunger” which was set to improve people’s nutrition, promote agriculture and most especially sustain over 800 billion people that go hungry daily. This particular issue is mostly seen to affect developing countries like mine; hunger also causes 45% of deaths in children under five.
The third goal is themed “Good Health and Well-Being” which sets to ensure healthy lives and wellbeing for people of all ages. It is associated with reducing diseases or illnesses causing death in children, during childbirth as well reduces the spread of killer diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, polio as well as malaria. “Goal 4” is themed “Quality Education” which is set to ensure quality education and provide endless learning opportunities for all persons. It is quite disappointing for about 103 million youths worldwide to lack access to basic primary education, 60% of whom are girls leading to the fifth goal themed “Gender Equality” which sets to achieve an ideal “50-50” world where males and females have equal access to education, health care, decent work and can contest for the same position politically or economically, about 143 countries have equality amongst men and women on constituted authority while only 52 countries have not.
The sixth goal is themed “Clean Water and Sanitation” which sets to ensure safe drinking water, hygienic toilets and proper sanitation, stop open defecating amongst other things. Its targeted 4.5 billion people who do not observe proper sanitation are quite significant to the 7.6 billion of world’s population. Goal 7 is themed “Affordable and Clean Energy” sets to improve access to affordable and reliable energy while increasing the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. This would involve improving energy efficiency and enhancing international cooperation to facilitate more open access to clean energy technology and investment in clean energy infrastructure. Goal 8 is themed “Decent Work and Economic Growth” is aimed at sustain economic growth in all countries as well as sustainable jobs for all individuals, encourage entrepreneurship as well as increase world trade and gross domestic product of developing countries.
Goal 9 is themed “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure”, it is aimed at improving infrastructural value of each country, encourage innovation as well as manufacturing and promote sustainable industrialization. Goal 10 is themed “Reduced Inequalities” set to reduce income inequality in countries where there is imbalance in the pay rates of individuals due to their gender, race, and nationality. The eleventh goal is themed “Sustainable Cities and Communities” which strives to make human settlements or homes sustainable, safe, affordable and resilient in times of bad weather. It also stands to cut down the amassing number of slums in our countries. Goal 12 is themed “Responsible Consumption and Production” involves adopting cleaner and eco-friendly methods of production including recycling and also reducing the amount of commodities consumed and the amount of waste produced. Goal 13 is themed “Climate Action” which sets to reduce climate change, cut carbon emission and promote renewable energy production. Its action sets to restrain global warming by 2030 and this was converged upon at Paris, France in 2015 where a powerful climate deal emerged to make global warming and its threats a history.
Goal 14 is themed “Life below Water” set to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Oceans cover 71% of the earth’s surface and are essential for making the planet livable. Rainwater, drinking water and climate are all regulated by ocean temperatures and currents, oceans absorb 30% of all carbon dioxide produced by humans. The ocean is the world’s largest source of protein. Goal 15 is themed “Life On Land” set to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss, it also calls for protection of wildlife and other species of land animals. Goal 16 is themed “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions” sets to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. Institutions include the executive, legislative and judiciary; they need to be strong for a sustainable society and country.
Lastly, Goal 17 is themed “Partnership for the Goals” sets to strengthen bonds between countries and promote international co-operation for all the sustainable development goals. These are all of the goals needed to be achieved within the timeline to ensure a sustainable world and save our earth. Therefore, I employ everyone reading this to adopt a goal, research about it and help save our earth.