The future of humanity and of our planet lies in our hands. It lies also in the hands of today’s younger generation who will pass the torch to future generations.

 

Years ago, an earlier generation of world leaders came together to create the United Nations. From the ashes of war and division, they fashioned this Organization and enshrined as its statutes the values of peace, dialogue and international cooperation which today underpins the importance of the body. The supreme embodiment of those values is the Charter of the United Nations.

 

We can be the first generation to succeed in ending poverty; just as we may be the last to have a chance of saving the planet. The world will be a better place in 2030 if we are successful. Children, young women and men are critical agents of change and will find in the new goals a platform to channel their infinite capacities and energies for activism into the creation of a better world. These must be seen as towards ending poverty and hunger in all their forms and dimensions, and to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment structured to protecting the planet from degradation through sustainable consumption and production. There’s also the crying need to sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations.

 

The dvidend of such strides is the fostering of peace, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence. There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development. So mobilizing the means required to implement this agenda through a revitalized Global Partnership for Sustainable Development must be based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity, focused in particular on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable and with the participation of all countries and all stakeholders and all people.

 

The inter-linkages and integrated nature of Sustainable Development Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the new agenda is realized. If we realize our ambitions across the full extent of the agenda, the lives of all will be profoundly improved and our world will be transformed for the better.

 

Sustainable Development Goals and targets are integrated and indivisible global in nature and universally applicable, taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities.

 

 Shittu Olayinka Y. Olayinka based in Abuja