What is GO4SDGs?
The Global Opportunities for Sustainable Development Goals (GO4SDGs) aims to accelerate the progress necessary to meet the 2030 Agenda, especially for SDG 12 (Sustainable Consumption and Production) and SDG 8 (Decent Work & Green Economies). It is one of the initiatives of the Resources & Markets Branch of UNEP’s Economy Division. The Initiative builds partnerships to connect global initiatives with regional needs and solutions. GO4SDGs focuses on implementing action by supporting GOVERNMENTS (to strengthen policy coherence), SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES (access for financing innovation and circularity), and YOUTH (to empower them to embrace sustainable lifestyles). To achieve this, the initiative shares best practices, science-based knowledge, tools and capacity development in the high-impact sectors of Food, Textiles, Plastics and Tourism.
Almost 2.000 different voices and perspectives during 5 Regional Consultations for Stockholm+50
The Stockholm+50 international meeting commemorates the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment and celebrates 50 years of global environmental action. To prepare for the meeting, five regional multi-stakeholder consultations have been organized by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and the Initiative Global Opportunities for Sustainable Development Goals (GO4SDGs). Participants represented a diversity of stakeholders, including youth, women, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, the private sector, governments, and UN Agencies, among others, who came together to reflect on and review how to accelerate action to achieve sustainable development and to prepare regional key messages to take forward to the Stockholm+50 Meeting. More information about the Regional Consultations can be found here, or in the blog of Adriana Zacarias Farah.
Adriana Zacarias Farah, head of GO4SDGs: "We brought new voices and narratives to the table. We do not hear the voices of Indigenous Peoples or faith-based organizations very often, which was very inspiring."
GO4SDGs is working on five new initiatives as a follow-up of the regional consultations:
1. Green Jobs for Youth Pact (alliance with ILO, UNICEF, UNEP)
The Pact wants to scale up initiatives to equip our youth with the needed tools to develop the skills to achieve sustainable transformation. The Pact develops partnerships with governments, the private sector, academia, and youth, to identify the gaps in the skills of youth.
2. Sustainable lifestyles within 1.5 degrees (collaboration with Hot or Cool Institute)
Sustainable lifestyles are about changing our consumption and production patterns, looking at circularity, and enabling citizens to be more sustainable. We would like to explore the pathways and necessary infrastructures to achieve a positive, sustainable future.
3. Financing Circularity (collaboration with UNEP FI)
With UNEP FI we analyse the existing financial mechanisms for circularity in Latin America and are about the start in Africa. The results will be shared with developing banks to put this into practice, with the aim to upscale circular practices.
4. Sustainable Consumption and Production (collaboration with One Planet Network)
Science partners will work on sustainable consumption and production themes in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa. The regions will also receive training on the use of SCP HAT to identify the hot spots of emission in high-impact sectors.
5. SMEs: Gamechangers for Local Actions towards Sustainability (SEED, GO4SDGs, UNEP) Global awareness of the triple planetary crisis resulting from unsustainable consumption and production patterns is growing, as well as the private sector's potential to address them. The event will demonstrate the potential and necessity to engage with and enable SMEs to deliver sustainability, including the opportunity to start their journey to net-zero.
Adriana Zacarias Farah, head of GO4SDGs: "GO4SDGs is addressing key topics of the regional consultations, which were a wonderful opportunity to connect with different stakeholders. They made clear that social Inclusion is key, which refers to new metrics beyond GDP and to learning from Indigenous Peoples and woman and equipping our youth with innovative skills to achieve the sustainable transformation we are dreaming for."
Please visit our website for more information about the work of GO4SDGs.
