UN Secretary General called for the world to kick start a decade of delivery and action. Not to come with beautiful speeches but come with a deep commitment to radical action.

Our world is changing dramatically, rapidly and with ever greater complexity. We see this on full display from the ravages of prolonged conflicts and many new ones to the rising impact of climate change. From growing inequalities to entrenched gender discrimination to the challenges of record numbers of people on the move and the world’s most vulnerable people suffering the most. The United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development — under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council — began its fourth annual session from 9 – 18 July. Four years after their adoption, progress on many of the SDGs remains slow amid rising inequality. The DDMBA delegation of 5 lead by Venerable Chang Ji partook in the conference held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The HLPF marks the last in its first cycle, with the successful review of all 17 SDGs set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and a total of 142 countries having presented voluntary national reviews. The theme for 2019 centers on empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality. Six SDGs were discussed: equitable quality education; inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all; inequalities; combating climate change; promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development; and strengthening the means of implementation.

During this four years, young people are starting to question the traditional notions and models of governance and development. New partnerships and forms of development cooperation are taking shape. However, there is still a long way to go to fully translate the SDGs into action. Too often, siloed approaches and the old ways of doing business dominate. Siloed thinking is slowing progress on the 2030 Agenda, with too much emphasis placed on short-term trade-offs and no consideration of long-term synergies. To put it simply, the traditional approaches to development are not going to bring the SDGs to life. There needs to be in place a truly new paradigm shift, both in terms of ambition, scale and speed to match the 2030 Agenda.

In her keynote speech during the opening of the Ministerial Segment, Nobel Peace Laureate and President of the Elders, Mary Robinson quoted from the second UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, it is when we all play safe, we create a world of utmost insecurity, it is when we all play safe that fatality will lead us to our doom. It is in the dark shade of courage alone that the spell can be broken. This HLPF is a time to be bold and to demand real ambition from leaders, playing safe or doing business as usual is not good enough.

In his keynote speech, Richard Curtis, Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, Screenwriter, Producer and Film Director, and Co-Founder of Project Everyone, pointed out that the SDGs give us a unique opportunity. It makes us the first generation to eradicate extreme poverty, the last generation to be threatened by climate change and the most determined generation to end inequality and injustice. Why is it a unique opportunity now? Because next year is 2020, 1/3 of the way to 2030, if we wait, the opportunity will begin to fade. Acceptance will creep into people’s minds that we are not going to make it, that is was a nice opportunity that we missed, we settled for bronze when we could have won gold.

In the current landscape of deepening inequalities and human suffering, it is critical to demonstrate how truly committed everyone remains to the 2030 Agenda. A goal of the meeting is to build on important gains, encouraging all to share experiences and lessons learned, strengthen partnerships and help guide policy in ways that lead to a world of dignity for all. Science and technology alone cannot stop continuing warfare, racism, and environmental destruction. The illusion of separation that fuels global consumerism and greed, fear, and ignorance needs to be transformed by the realization of interdependence, by the illumination of wisdom and compassion. Each of us must find our own way to contribute to this with the wisdom of our practice and our own unique capacities. Master Sheng Yen said “… only when we tolerate the differences … within a pluralistic global society can we exchange virtues, strengths and learn from each other. Otherwise, if people seek only to reject those who are different from themselves and attempt to use violent means … to intimidate and conquer those who are different, the result is that they will end up targets of terror and conquest themselves.” The call for deep transformation and partnerships demand for humanity to raise above our differences so that we could work together to realize a “world we want”.

Texts: Venerable Chang Ji (常濟法師）
Translation: Chang, Cheng-Yu (張振郁)
Editing: DDM Editorial Team; John Wu (吳俊宏); Venerable Chang Ji

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