Sounding Board

Holy Names Sisters urge support for UN sustainability goals

 United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon has called for solidarity around 17 sustainable development goals for the next 15 years.  The goals are being deliberated and developed by people all around the world. They will be voted on in the United Nations General Assembly in September and the first and most urgent goal is to eliminate poverty everywhere. The General Assembly will be followed with a special session on Climate Change in December in Paris.

This critical, transformational global work requires our spiritual power, moral authority and modeling of servant leadership, Most important, we need to let our own national leaders know that the United States must step up to the challenge of addressing these important global goals, which will also empower our own nation to respond to the challenges that will secure a safe and sustainable future for all.

While the 17 goals may seem overwhelming, they represent a future where all people are valued and provided with equitable opportunity while caring for our world’s valuable resources.

As people of faith, we have a responsibility to educate, compassionately change hearts and minds, and pray for the success of this important United Nations initiative.

We encourage everyone to review the 17 goals listed below and visit the United Nations’ website at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html to learn more about the process leading up to the General Assembly in September.

We use the goals as a litany, responding to each goal with: “Send forth Your Spririt, renew the face of the earth.”

The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals:

1) End poverty in all of its forms everywhere;

2) End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture;

3) Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages;

4) Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all;

5) Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls;

6) Ensure availability and management of water and sanitation for all;

7) Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all;

8) Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all;

9) Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation;

10) Reduce inequality within and among countries;

11) Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable;

12) Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns;

13) Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts;

14) Conserve use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development;

15) Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and management of forests; combat desertification (depletion of soil) and halt and reverse land degradation and biodiversity loss;

16) Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels, and

17) Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Yvonne Lopez-Morton,
Sr. Mary Ann Farley,
Sr. Anne Bosserman,
Sr. Marianne Therese Wilkinson,
Sandi Wilson,
Sally Duffy - Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and SNJM associates – Spokane

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