The economic transformation needed for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals is vast and ambitious:  lifestyles, production patterns and approaches towards policymaking will need to change significantly. Making this transformation “fast, fair and green” and using it for creating good jobs, decent working conditions, adequate livelihoods and inclusive outcomes is key to leaving no one behind.

The Global Opportunities for Sustainable Development Goals Initiative

As part of Germany and UNEP’s commitment to step up their efforts to achieve the SDGs, the German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and UNEP launched the initiative ‘Global Opportunities for Sustainable Development Goals’ (or in short: GO for SDGs) in January 2020.

This new initiative aims to strengthen inclusive and sustainable economies and societies. It will facilitate regional dialogue and exchange among practitioners. It aims to see better sharing on best practices for replicating and scaling-up programmes, and by fostering local institutional learning and experience sharing. Specifically, the initiative will be galvanising support and enhancing the capacity of three change-agent groups: policymakers, business, and society/youth. These groups will be the key to guiding and implementing sustainable economic policies, investments, business models and enable consumer choices towards sustainability through newly designed regional sustainability hubs and regional sustainable business fora.

Partners of the initiative and SEED’s contribution

Lead by UNEP and the German Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), other participating partners of the initiative include SEED, the World Economic Forum, UNDP, the Green Growth Knowledge Platform and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The One Planet Network is part of the platform as well as the UN initiative PAGE (Partnership for Action on Green Economy).

SEED’s support for eco-inclusive SMEs and promoting entrepreneurship will see SEED share best practices and approaches on how SMEs can contribute towards sustainable development. Concretely, it will share best practices and learnings on how to develop support tools and ecosystem building for SMEs working towards the SDGs

Outcomes of the inception workshop 12-13 March

During seven sessions, participants from UNEP and the partner organisations discussed focus, impact areas and the expected outcomes of the Global Opportunities for Sustainable Development Goals. The new circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic were also taken into account and might lead to possible adjustments to the initiative. Specific attention was given to how sustainable consumption and production, circularity and the transition targets can be reached through national and regional policies and where the private sector, SMEs and youth fit in. In addition to that, representatives from regional offices presented possible impact pathways of the initiative for different regions in the world.