SDG Summit 2019

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) are 17 global goals to be achieved by 2030. They are wider in range than most people’s definition of sustainability and include issues such as poverty, sanitation and gender equality. They were ratified by 193 nations in 2015.

Within the 17 goals there are 244 measures and it’s here that the relevance of the SDGS to libraries and archives becomes clearer. For instance, Target ‘16.10: Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms.’ Libraries are key institutions to achieving the goals and IFLA has advocated for the ‘inclusion of access to information, safeguarding of cultural heritage, universal literacy, and access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in the framework”. LIANZA’S Strategic Plan 2018–2022 includes ‘increase member engagement in SDG’S.’

The SDG Summit 2019 was a chance for people from all sectors to come together and decide on actions that would help us meet the SDGS. We heard from luminaries such as Helen Clark and UN special advisor Jeffrey Sachs, who both pointed out that although New Zealand ranks well globally in terms of SDG progress there are many areas where we fall short. Currently no nation is on track to achieve the SDGS by 2030 and there is no requirement to formally report on SDG progress.

Later in the day attendees got together to work collaboratively on action plans covering issues such as KPIS, education and collaboration. There was great solidarity in the session I attended. It will be interesting to see whether this translates into actual action.

The key things I took away from the summit were:

■ The need to improve the visibility of the SDGS. The Paris Climate Accord is relatively well-known, but not the SDGS. Awareness is important so people can contribute and ask others what they are doing.

■ The SDGS are highly relevant to the Pacific. The Pacific is particularly vulnerable to climate change, especially rising sea levels, and Pacific cultures are at risk of dying. Libraries already help to promote and preserve Pacific culture – but what more should we be doing?

■ So many highly engaged rangatahi with real passion who are not prepared to wait for a topdown approach. Is this a chance to engage a sector that is often hard to get into libraries?

■ Collaborate or die! There are so many organisations with overlapping values and goals. Working together we can achieve so much more than as individuals.

■ Reporting is vital to measure progress towards the goals and to allow people to hold governments to account and improve visibility. This needs to be presented in an appealing, accessible way if we want people to engage.

■ Mātauranga Māori is a natural fit with the SDGS.

Even if the SDGS are not something you are actively working to support they are a useful framework for storytelling when trying to explain the impact that libraries have. IFLA has some useful resources to help with this:

■ https://sdg-tracker.org/peace-justice

■ https://www.ifla.org/libraries-development

■ https://lianza.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/strategic-plan-02_08_19.pdf

■ https://www.ifla.org/publications/librariesand-the-sustainable-development-goals--astorytelling-manual