The Road From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals by 2030

Abstract

Affilia, the Journal of Women and Social Work was originally founded by a team of scholars in North America to provide a venue to share feminist scholarship with a focus on social justice. As the journal has become a home for nurturing feminist scholarship from around the world, this editorial explores the United Nations' (UN) recent call for action to eliminate gender-based discrimination and to empower all women and girls around the world as well as social work's role in these goals. Since the founding of the UN after the Second World War in 1945, many states from around the world have joined its membership. With the secretary-general as its chief administrative officer, the UN now represents 193 member states. The regular general assembly of the UN meets annually in September at its headquarters in New York. Among many priorities, the UN provides a forum for its member states to discuss and commit to improving social and economic conditions of people around the world. In September 2015, at the 70th anniversary of the UN, the heads of state and government representatives from all 193 member countries met in New York and adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, which contains 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs; UN, 2015c). Goal 5(SDG5) is to attain gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls by 2030. The road to attaining SDG5 began 15 years earlier at the 55th General Assembly meeting of the UN in New York. At this UN session in September 2000, the heads of state and representatives from 147 countries resolved to attain eight goals by 2015, which became known as the millennium development goals (MDGs) (UN, 2000a). The third goal (MDG3) was to "Promote gender equality and empower women." What progress have women made under the MDG agenda? What challenges remain in meeting the SDG of empowering women and girls? How should social workers respond to address the challenges and make SDG5 a reality by 2030? Gender inequality has historically signaled attention to unequal power between men and women, with increasing attention to the fluidity of gender expression and the rights of trans and gender

Disparities in mobile phone ownership reflect inequities in access to healthcare

“…The UN emphasizes the global importance of equitable access to health care as a basic human right for all. Several of the SDGs prioritize improvements in health equity as critical milestones towards progress [ 32 , 46 ].…”

Youth and Their Role in Attaining SDG5

“…UN systems have been critiqued for not including, nor protecting, SOGIE people for some time (Mulé et al 2016;Vance et al 2018;Pandey 2017). A new wave of critique has emerged since the inception of the SDGs in 2015, noting particularly that the fear of what a SOGIE delegate's member state may inflict upon them is a significant barrier to participation (Mulé 2018).…”

Assessment of environmental footprint using geospatial approach to ascertain the Sustainable Development Goal 2030s of India

“…It is proposed by the UN to include quantitative targets and indicators for the UN 2030 Agenda. SDGs encourage governments, NGOs, and communities to reconnect the economy, environment, and society (Halisçelik & Soytas, 2019; Pandey, 2017). However, this research is directly related to SDGs 13, 15, and 17, which reflect climate action, land life, and collaboration to achieve this goal, which aids in the proper functioning of the earth system.…”