It’s been nine months since the United Nations adopted a new global agenda for development – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the final details are being refined in an ongoing United Nations process, spaces for action, discussion and collaboration around the new framework are emerging across the globe. The University of Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney worked with the Research for Development Impact (RDI) Network and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Australia/Pacific to host an interactive forum at UNSW on June 2nd, addressing the topic of SDGs in the Asia Pacific: a shared agenda for action. Close to 70 academics, practitioners and policy-makers came together to discuss how the Sydney development community could progress the SDG agenda in our region.
ISF’s Juliet Willetts, Co-Chair of the RDI Network and Chair of the organising committee for the forum, opened the day with a call to participants to think about how the SDGs can help us address structural issues that leave people behind. Two keynote speakers, Patricia Sachs Cornish (Pacific Community) and Dr Yanuar Nugroho (Executive Office of the President of Indonesia) shared their experiences of being integrally involved in championing the uptake of the SDG framework in the Pacific and Indonesia respectively.
Group discussions provided a chance for a broad cross-section of the Sydney development community to reflect on and discuss their own roles in making the goals known, accessible, relevant and effective through collaboration and strong partnerships.
More information can be found here.