The UNSDG in NGO Access

Team Members: K. Haycook, K. Kunich, and P. Suess*

*Note: The team members contributed equally and are listed in alphabetical order.

Infographic

Please look at the infographic for the topic explored by the team.

Advocacy Letter

Please read the team's letter to the UNSDG Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed.

839932-2463664 - Kayla Haycook - Apr 4, 2022 132 PM - Advocacy Letter final.pdf

Blog Post

Why the UNSDG Should Utilize more NGOs

WHAT IS THE UNSDG?

The United Nations Sustainable Development group is a consortium of agencies that are used to tackle issues related to sustainable development. They serve to create joint policy and make decision that affect operations in 162 countries and territories. The UNSDG does make use of several non-governmental agencies to push forward their goals for sustainability, but there is a need to expand their use to move towards their 17 goals.

ROLE OF NGOS

In October of 1987, the World Commission on the environment and development published “Our Common Future,” also known as the Brundtland Report. This now-famous report sought to bring environmental and developmental issues to the forefront of the political conversation. One of the essential concepts from the report was the need for participation across all levels of society, including non-governmental organizations. “Our Common Future” was essential in establishing “the three mutually reinforcing and critical aims of sustainable development: the improvement of human well-being; more equitable distribution of resource use benefits across and within societies; and development that ensures ecological integrity over intergenerational timescales”(Sneddon 2004), and these principles are largely present within the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. We believe that future NGO participation will facilitate UNSDG’s 17 sustainable goals. While NGO participation was largely stagnant in the 1970s and 1980s, the Brundtland Report caused NGO involvement to grow exponentially to fit the growing sustainability efforts.

The integration of Non-governmental Organizations can improve international organizations, like the UNSDG in many ways. The main benefit of incorporating NGOs is the information they bring to the table (Beyer 2007). They can contribute knowledge of specific issues, which the broad goals of large organizations may have overlooked. Non-Governmental organizations also have unique grassroots information that contributes data from their local population and area. The second way NGOs contribute is through increasing the legitimacy of an organization. However, the organization has to be already legitimate to increase the international organization’s legitimacy. They can also improve IO’s legitimacy as a democracy by bringing a voice for civil society. Thirdly, NGOs can promote policies or initiatives to their local population. They can do this through campaigns tailored explicitly towards the area. They can also promote the incorporation of policies within their communities. This promotion could even create norms among the community, creating long-term effects. Lastly, NGOs can allow more autonomy for international organizations because they can provide funding. If international organizations only get funding from the States, it can result in tailoring initiatives towards the goals of the States rather than the ones that are important. By allowing funding from NGOs with similar goals, they can have more freedom to create policies that ultimately push them closer to their goal (Beyer 2007).

An example of an NGO’s success in International Organizations can be seen through The United Nations Global Compact. The UNGC is tasked with partnering with companies and NGOs to help them gain corporate sustainability while aligning their business strategy to help solve the

SDGs. The UNGC is currently partnered with 15,401 NGOs and companies spanning over 164 countries. Of those 15,000, 84 percent — report taking specific action to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. One specific NGO partnered with UNGC is SaveTheChildern this NGO works towards achieving Goal 1: No poverty and Goal 2: Zero Hunger. SaveTheChildern reported in 2020 that they have “directly reached nearly 45 million children across 122 countries around the world. As well as responding to 136 humanitarian emergencies across 77 countries and contributing to 33 policy or legislation changes for children’s rights.” One of those 45 million children was six month old Exodus. Exodus is a refugee who lost his father in South Sudan he arrived at a SaveTheChildren camp very ill he was brought to an emergency health team and was diagnosed with malaria. Today Exdous is healthy, and there’s hope for his future.

A SOLUTION FOR THE UNSDG

The United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 to create a partnership among nations and non-governmental organizations to end poverty and prevent environmental ruin. This agenda is made up of 17 goals focused on development and the

environment, such as eliminating food insecurity, promoting clean water efforts, and improving education globally. These are challenging goals for any one country to achieve alone; however, the 2030 Agenda promotes multilateral partnerships between NGOs and international organizations. If Non-Governmental Organizations are used to help these initiatives, there can be a push for their goals on a localized level. The UNSDG could also use the resources of more NGOs for further research on their goals. With our efforts, we hope to demonstrate that there is currently not enough NGO participation within the UNSDG and that this lack of participation is hindering UN efforts.

Reference

Beyer, Cornelia. “Non-Governmental Organizations as Motors of Change.” Government Opposition 42, no. 4 (2007): 513–35.

“Find a Report.” Save the Children International. https://www.savethechildren.net/research-reports/search?region=Africa (February 22, 2022).

“Homepage: UN Global Compact.” Homepage | UN Global Compact. www.unglobalcompact.org/ (February 22, 2022).

“Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos) in the United States - United States Department of State.” 2021. U.S. Department of State.

https://www.state.gov/non-governmental-organizations-ngos-in-the-united-states/ (February 22, 2022).

Yap, Nonita. “NGOs and Sustainable Development.” International Journal 45, no. 1 (March 1990): 75–105

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