Haumba’s Trendy Thoughts

Relatively few would pick Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 as their “favourite” out of the 17 goals. However, it is a very important goal, which all the other SDGs are reliant upon. SDG 17 Partnership for the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015 for example, the Global Compact Network Canada conducted a SDGs Survey asking Canadian businesses to rank the top 5 SDGs according to their importance within Canada and in the world, in terms of the company’s existing initiatives and the importance for own business. The results of this survey were very interesting, and it was striking to see that SDG 17 was consistently ranked among the lowest of the priorities in each of the four questions. In reality, goal 17 is a very important goal and deserves a lot more attention as the success of the SDGs as a whole largely relies on successful partnerships. The aim of SDG 17 is to “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development”.

When the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted, Goal 16 was seen as truly transformative, formally linking, for the first time at the United Nations, development, peace, justice, and good governance. Some of its more ambitious targets include significantly reducing all forms of violence, ending abuse and violence against children, promoting the rule of law, reducing illicit financial flows and corruption, and developing accountable and transparent institutions. But Goal 16 was not adopted without controversy. Many countries argued against the interruption of peace and security, and even more so justice, considerations into the development sphere, and would have preferred that the goal be dropped altogether. Other countries maintained that this goal was central for them and that their support for the 2030 Agenda hinged upon it. Nearly three years later, progress on Goal 16 is uneven, and there is considerable doub