Sustainable Development Goals and Arts
Lately, for my day job, I’ve been doing work with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs) and I think there is potential to apply many of these ideas to the work we do in theatre, arts, and performance.
The United Nations first formulated the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 and identified specific targets and indicators for progress towards each goal in 2017. These goals are far from perfect, they don’t come with resources for implementation, and they are not part of a binding agreement. However, they do provide a roadmap for cohesive, unified, impactful action. I’ve seen an increase in companies setting sustainability goals based on the SDGs, using the indicators as their headlamps towards an uncertain climate future.
As you read the goals I’ve put together below, what do you think about? Where do you see possibilities for action or engagement?
The goals I think are most relevant and impactful to cultural, artistic, and performance are:
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable, quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
Target 4.7: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Target 5.1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
Target 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
Target 5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Target 8.3: Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services
Target 8.4: Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavor to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, with developed countries taking the lead
Target 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
Target 8.7: Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
Target 8.8: Protect labor rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment
Target 8.9: By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
Target 10.1: By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average
Target 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
Target 10.3: Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard
Target 10.4: Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Target 11.1: By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums
Target 11.2: By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons
Target 11.4: Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage
Target 11.b: By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Target 12.2: By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
Target 12.4: By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment
Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
Target 12.6: Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle
Target 12.7: Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities
Target 12.8: By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature
Target 12.b: Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
Target 17.17: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships
Next, I’m going to dive into each of these in more detail to share where I see potential for artists and creators to be involved with these goals.
