Agenda 2030: Why civic participation is key to meeting UN sustainability targets

Mandeep S. Tiwana
Chief Programmes Officer and Representative to the UN headquarters

  • Attacks on civil society and civic freedoms are threatening adequate progress being made on meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • Agenda 2030 marks a rare moment of global unanimity with an emphasis on economic advancement, social progress and environmental sustainability.
  • Ahead of September's 2023 SDG Summit, we must ensure that sustainable development involves both freedom from fear and freedom from want.

Attacks on civil society and civic freedoms threaten to unravel achievements in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They are weakening action to tackle economic inequality, gender imbalances, corruption and environmental degradation.

UN Chief Antonio Guterres will release the latest Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) progress report this week. This year’s report is especially crucial as we’re nearing the halfway point of Agenda 2030 – arguably the greatest-ever human endeavour undertaken to create peaceful, just, equal and sustainable societies.

The report’s findings will help lay the groundwork for deliberations at the high-level 2023 SDG Summit which will take place alongside UN General Assembly meetings in September this year.

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