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THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 3
ALL MEMBERS OF SOCIETY
HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE
This selection of challenges illustrates the urgent need for
action. The United Nations (UN), as the prevailing global
institution, has taken a lead: in 2015, the UN co-created the
agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and
called upon all members of society to rally around 17 goals to
end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all.
THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOALS
The agenda covers the Global South (emerging and developing
countries) as well as the Global North (developed and
industrialized countries) and is challenging governments,
civil society 2 and the private sector alike. These three key
stakeholder groups have different roles and bring different
competencies, resources and responsibilities to the table:
Ideally, government designs and enforces laws and regulations
and thereby defines “the rules of the game”, which have
significant influence on societal development. Depending
on the system and capacity of the government, it addresses
market failures, directly or indirectly presides over massive
resources and is ultimately accountable to its people as the
fundamental source of its legitimacy and power.
Individuals address societal challenges in everyday life, and
civil society organizations combine forces of individuals to
address challenges more effectively. In doing so, civil society
plays a crucial role in holding both the public and private
sector to account. In their undertakings, individuals and civil
society organizations are unfortunately more often than not
inadequately resourced and, by extension, only a few civil
society organizations have reached significant scale.
The private sector with its small, medium and large enterprises
has expertise in identifying demands, creating
solutions to address these demands, and providing these
solutions efficiently at large scale. The sector’s strength is
exceptional: for example, the combined revenue of Germany’s
30 largest publicly listed companies (EUR 1,446
billion) exceeds the gross domestic product of Canada
(EUR 1,429 billion). >>
2 Civil society includes non-governmental organizations (NGO), academia and others
3 Note: Beyond Philanthropy and goetzpartners support the SDGs