Sustainable development

From climate change to climate emergency

In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for urgent action to address fundamental, interconnected global issues – eliminating poverty, protecting the environment, advancing social equality and economic well-being – all with the intent of “leaving no one behind”.

The SDGs apply to every country regardless of its development status. Taken together, the 17 SDGs are a blueprint for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world, and provide a crucial framework and guidance for developing national and global policy.

The SDGs appear in the chart below.

Each of the SDGs has number of targets and indicators to measure the progress made in achieving it. Every year, the UN Secretary General presents a progress report. You can find these reports and other SDG information at https://sdgs.un.org/goals.

Servas International and other non-governmental organizations play a very important role by providing input into certain UN meetings pertaining to the SDGs and by encouraging their members to take action to support the Goals. Here are some ways that Servas International is contributing: 

• Servas’ representatives to the UN in Geneva attend the UN’s Human Rights Council and make written and oral statements on human rights issues related to several of the SDGs.
• Over the past few years, Servas members have supported SDG #5 (Gender Equality) through our participation in the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women conference at UN Headquarters in New York.
• Since 2022, Servas International has been a partner in the International Coalition Against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Some of our representatives to the UN are currently exploring ways by which Servas members can take action in support of the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Servas’ representatives to the UN continue to watch for additional opportunities to advance the SDGs.