Big bets for a sustainable future
In 2015, at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, leaders from around the world adopted a set of聽聽(SDGs) with the objective of ending poverty, fighting injustice and hunger, and taking on climate change by the year 2030. This month, the聽聽takes it a step further with the recent publication of聽. With contributions from 17 global leaders, innovators, artists, and entrepreneurs, the book outlines a range of perspectives on critical leaps to take to achieve the SDGs agreed upon in 2015.
The聽Big Bet Initiative, a partnership between聽,听, and the聽, asked contributors to the book a simple question: what idea, innovation, or thought would you encourage the world community to adopt to maximize the chances that we reach the Global Goals by 2030? The responses encompass a diverse set of voices and experiences that underscore the multiple facets of sustainable development. There isn鈥檛 one simple, quick fix solution; small, incremental change won鈥檛 be enough. Instead, the Big Bet Initiative suggests, we need bigger thinking about a range of approaches geared towards developing local solutions with broad adaptability that turn ideas into action.
Each Big Bet addresses a field of action related to its author鈥檚 field of expertise. Many contributors focus on how easier access to technologies鈥攚hether聽听辞谤听鈥攃an facilitate equality and sustainable development. Amina J. Mohammed, a former Special Advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon,听.
Other contributors turn their attention to youth empowerment.聽According to the World Economic Forum, close to 340 million young people are聽unemployed or not in school. Ashish J. Thakkar, founder of the Mara Group and Mara Foundation, and James I. Mwangi, director of the Dalberg Group, bet that聽聽will create brighter futures for global youth. Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), hones in on the need聽聽(STEM) around the globe, and empower young people through teaching basic research skills. 聽
Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg聽. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, if women were given the same access to resources as men, they could not only increase yields by 20-30 percent but also end under for as many as 200 million people.
The final Big Bet comes from artist Olafur Eliasson who聽. He says, 鈥淐ulture is a unique experience of democracy鈥it] is the energy that inspires solidarity and community, it is friction and discussion. A strong cultural sector creates a broader sense of identification, inclusion, a feeling of belonging to a global 鈥榳e.'鈥�
The book is just the first step. Match-up meetings seeking to pair ideamakers with investors 鈥渢o create fertile ground for civil society and private sector partnerships鈥� will follow its publication as the Big Bet Initiative carries us closer to reaching the SDGs by 2030.
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