'
Global Goals Week'' is a shared commitment between a coalition of over 160 partners across all industries, which mobilizes annually in September to bring together communities, demand urgency, and supercharge solutions for the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It was founded in 2016 by the
United Nations Foundation
The United Nations Foundation is a charitable organization headquartered in Washington, DC, that supports the United Nations and its activities. It was established in 1998 with a $1 billion gift to the United Nations by philanthropist Ted Turner, ...
Project Everyone and the
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP). It is timed to coincide with the
UN General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...
"High-Level Week" in New York. The week includes events, summits, conferences, forums, workshops, pledges, and other activations in New York, around the world, and online. It usually runs alongside
Climate Week NYC, the annual conference of
Goalkeepers (Gates Foundation),
Bloomberg Global Business Forum and many other high-level events.
History
Global Goals Week is an annual week of action that first took place in 2016. It was piloted by core partners Project Everyone, the
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP), and the
United Nations Foundation
The United Nations Foundation is a charitable organization headquartered in Washington, DC, that supports the United Nations and its activities. It was established in 1998 with a $1 billion gift to the United Nations by philanthropist Ted Turner, ...
. The core partners have now expanded to include the
United Nations Department of Global Communications
The United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC) (previously named the United Nations Department of Public Information) is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nations. It is tasked with raising public awareness and support o ...
, the UN SDG Strategy Hub, the UN SDG Action Campaign, and Action for Sustainable Development.
Structure
Global Goals Week is scheduled to coincide with the main annual meetings that take place during the
UN General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...
. The week highlights a shared commitment between over 160 partners across civil society, business, academia, and the UN system, to accelerate action on the SDGs, particularly during the UN General Assembly High-Level Week. Together, all this helps to reinforce the importance of working together to solve global challenges and achieve the SDGs.
Purpose
The purpose is to organize "action, awareness, and accountability for the
Sustainable Development Goals". It is also an opportunity to "speak out as one voice, share ideas and transformative solutions in the fight to build back better from global challenges".
It aims to make "the SDG community come together".
Themes and Activities
2022
Global Goals Week 2022 took place from September 16 to 25. To allow partners more flexibility, the calendar was expanded to host events from September 1 to October 15.
The seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly opened on 13 September under the theme, “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges.” The theme stems from the recognition that the world is at a critical moment in the history of the United Nations due to complex and interconnected crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, humanitarian challenges of unprecedented nature, a tipping point in climate change as well as growing concerns about threats to the global economy.
2021
Global Goals Week 2021 took place from September 17 to 26. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, the calendar was expanded to host events from September 1 to October 15. Events and activations in 2021 were mostly virtual, but also included some in-person events around the world, as well as hybrid ones.
Under the theme ‘Building Resilience through Hope’, and against the background of the COVID pandemic and global insecurity, the 2021 UN General Assembly’s opening underscored the need for greater urgency and ambition to end the pandemic and ensure an equitable and
green recovery
Green recovery packages are proposed environmental, regulatory and fiscal reforms to build prosperity in the wake of an economic crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic or the Global Financial Crisis. They pertain to fiscal measures that intend to recov ...
and accelerated implementation of the SDGs.
2020
Global Goals Week 2020 took place from September 18 to 26. It was completely virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal was to "cultivate ideas, identify solutions, and build partnerships with the power to solve a wide range of complex global problems from inequality to
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
".
2019
Global Goals Week 2019 took place concurrently with
Climate Week NYC 2019, from September 21 to 28. The theme was: "Action for People and Planet". There were 72 Global Goals Week events, 68 events from the SDG Action Zone, 351 events from Climate Week NYC, and 2981 actions, including events, from the SDG Action Campaign.
[UN Foundations (2019]
Presentation about Global Goals Week in 2019
provided o
website about Global Goals Week
Around 107,000 people attended online and around 30,000 people attended in-person.
The week included the events of the UN Summits Week, comprising the UN-Secretary-General's Climate Action Summit, a High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage; the SDG Summit; the 2019 High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development (FfD); and a High-level Review of Progress on SAMOA Pathway.
Other events included:
* Youth Climate Summit
* Social Good Summit
* Global Week to Act for SDGs
* Private Sector Forum
* International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD)
* Sustainable Development Impact Summit
* Equator Prize 2019 Award Ceremony
*
Bloomberg Global Business Forum
* SDG Business Forum
* UN Solutions Summit
* AI (
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
) Sustainable Development Summit.
A range of commitments were announced in 2019. These include financial commitments, partnerships, initiatives and activists.
Initiatives included:
* The Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation supported the launch of the University Global Compact.
*
WFP
The World Food Programme; it, Programma alimentare mondiale; es, Programa Mundial de Alimentos; ar, برنامج الأغذية العالمي, translit=barnamaj al'aghdhiat alealami; russian: Всемирная продовольствен ...
and
Alibaba Group unveiled “Hunger Map Live”, a digital map to track food-security issues across the globe.
*
Open Government Partnership's Acceleration Action on its recently launched coalition on justice.
*
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
presented innovations in AI to advance the Global Goals and highlighted the work from their Impact Challenge grantees.
Activist events included:
* Activists and leaders from across all sectors came together at the SDG Action Zone alongside UN Deputy Secretary-General
Amina J. Mohammed to pledge their commitment to a super year of activism in 2020, to kickstart a Decade of Action for the SDGs.
*
Trisha Shetty
Trisha Shetty (born 16 September 1990) is an Indian activist for gender equality and the founder of SheSays. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially advocating for gender-sensitive policies and law, quality education, youth and gende ...
(SheSays) focused on empowering women and girls, ensuring no-one is left behind.
*
Kennedy Odede (SHOFCO and World Poverty Forum) focused on tackling poverty and reducing inequality, looking ahead to the World Poverty Forum in January, to be held in Kibera, Kenya's biggest slum.
*
Kumi Naidoo
Kumi Naidoo (b 1965 in Durban, South Africa) is a human rights and climate justice activist. He was International Executive Director of Greenpeace International (from 2009 through 2015) and Secretary General of Amnesty International (from 201 ...
(Amnesty International) focused on grassroots civil activists whose lives are at risk worldwide.
*
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau (; born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor and producer. He graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen in 1993, and had his breakthrough role in Denmark with the film '' Nightwatch'' (19 ...
(actor and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador) focused on the power of stories to galvanize movements for change.
* SDG Advocates
Alaa Murabit
Alaa Murabit M.D ( ar, آلاء المرابط; born 26 October 1989) is a Libyan-Canadian physician, Meritorious Service Cross recipient, one of 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals Advocates appointed by the Secretary-General of the United ...
and
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, producer and film director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them '' ...
called on all sectors and citizens to mobilize in 2020 for the super year of activism ahead.
Examples of financial commitments:
*
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
and the
Islamic Development Bank
The Islamic Development Bank ( ar, البنك الإسلامي للتنمية, abbreviated as IsDB) is a multilateral development finance institution that is focused on Islamic finance for infrastructure development and located in Jeddah, Saudi ...
(IsDB) launched an innovative fund that will open new opportunities for Muslim
philanthropy to reach the millions of children currently in need of humanitarian support and help achieve the SDGs.
*
Mastercard’s
Michael Froman
Michael Braverman Goodman Froman (born August 20, 1962) is an American lawyer who served as the U.S. Trade Representative from 2013 to 2017. He was Assistant to the President of the United States and Deputy National Security Advisor for Internatio ...
and
Global Fund
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (or simply the Global Fund) is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to "attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, t ...
Chairman
Donald Kaberuka
Donald P. Kaberuka (born 5 October 1951) is a Rwandan economist and was the president of the African Development Bank from September 2005 until September 2015.
Early life and education
Kaberuka was born in Byumba, Rwanda. He studied at the Unive ...
reported on Mastercard’s new partnership with Step Up the Fight, a Global Fund initiative that proposes to raise $14 billion by 2023 for the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. Of that $14 billion, the Global Fund is advocating for the private sector to mobilize at least $1 billion to expedite progress toward
SDG 3 and universal health coverage.
* Colombian President
Iván Duque
Iván Duque Márquez (; born 1 August 1976) is a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as the president of Colombia from 2018 to 2022. He was elected as the candidate from the Democratic Centre Party in the 2018 Colombian presidential ...
and
Howard G. Buffett discussed private capital and public policy levers that can support sustainable peace in Colombia, as well as how the
Howard G. Buffett Foundation is elevating its investments in Colombia’s agriculture industries in line with the country’s peace process.
2018
In 2018, Global Goals Week took place from September 22 to 29. It was termed "the biggest Global Goals Week yet".
Its theme was "Let’s end poverty, fight inequality, and beat climate change''".''
Events included:
* Learning Revolutions: Creating Educational Environments for Empowerment and Inclusion
* Global People's Summit
* Social Good Summit
*
UN Global Compact
The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a princi ...
Leaders Summit
* World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit
* SDG Philanthropy Platform Events
* 2018 Concordia Annual Summit
*
Global Day of Action
* We the Future: Accelerating Sustainable Development Solutions 2018
*
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers
* Sustainable Investment Forum North America
*
Bloomberg Global Business Forum
* One Planet Summit
* International Conference on Sustainable Development
* The 8th Business Call to Action Annual Forum: Technological Disruption in the World of Inclusive Business
2017
Held from September 16 to 23, Global Goals Week 2017 events included:
*
Hult Prize
The Hult Prize is an annual, year-long competition that crowd-sources ideas from university level students after challenging them to solve a pressing social issue around topics such as food security, water access, energy, and education. It was fo ...
Awards Ceremony
* Social Good Summit
* SDG Media Zone
* Solutions Summit
* UN Private Sector Forum
* Global Citizen LIVE!
* Concordia Annual Summit
*
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
Sustainable Development Impact Summit
* International Conference on Sustainable Development
* Global Citizen Movement Makers
*
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers
*
TED Global
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
NYC
* UN Global Compact Leaders Summit
* We the Future
*
Global Citizen Festival
The Global Citizen Festival is an annual music festival started in 2012 and organized by Global Poverty Project. It was founded by Ryan Gall and Hugh Evans. Gall said he was inspired by visiting Austin City Limits and seeing the branding on the ...
Climate Week took place at the same time.
Trends that emerged from the 2017 Global Goals Week included: "Development through the Trump prism, refugees and migration, humanitarian water-treading, putting business to work (for the SDGs), breaking down siloes, what’s next for development and new partnerships, United Nations reform."
Impacts
In 2020, Global Goals Week recorded the following impacts:
* 164 events registered, spanning September and October 2020
* 112 partners in the coalition
* 63 million people joined online
* 17.5 thousand people attended in-person
* 2.2 billion social media impressions
* Between September 18-26, 2020, Global Goals Week received 527,000 social media engagements
* The US, Japan, the UK and India were the top countries reached
For Global Goals Week 2019, the following impacts were reported in terms of
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
metrics: Reach: 5.8 billion - defined as the total number of unique people who have seen the social media content.
An analysis of
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
data was done from 20 September to 2 October 2019 of over 50 different hashtags and Twitter handles. Around 10.8 million posts, shares, hashtags and mentions were tracked from 115 countries in 54 different languages.
References
External links
Official website
{{Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable development
Sustainable Development Goals