Canadian Government Executive - Volume 23 - Issue 1

January 2017 // Canadian Government Executive / 9 Policy New Policy Direction for 2030: DGs are becoming the strategic framework for all governments, cities and provinces, businesses and charities, schools and hospitals. S ustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part of the new global “Agenda 2030 for Sustainable De- velopment” adopted by Heads of States and Governments at the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2015. It a universal policy agenda for “people, planet and prosperity.” It applies to all countries worldwide, which means that Canada will also need to integrate it into its domestic and international poli- cies. SDGs are becoming part of the strate- gic framework for all governments, cities and provinces, businesses and charities, schools and hospitals. For governments it is a “policy brief from the future”; for busi- nesses is a “purchase order from the fu- ture”; and for citizens it is a new paradigm for the 21st century society. This is why the SDGS represent a unique opportunity for transformative change in developed, emerging and developing economies. Essentially, SDGs are a fully comprehen- sive meta-system of wicked problems cov- ering all key policies for the next 15 years. They are not a “UN thing,” but a holistic package of global, national and local ac- tions to be achieving by 2030. SDGs open a new chapter in Sustainable Development In only a bit more than a year, the SDGs have drawn the attention of policy makers, thought-leaders and researchers world- wide. The OECD adjusted its Framework for Policy Coherence for Sustainable Devel- opment to put the SDGs at the core. New sophisticated analytical models for under- standing the SDG linkages were developed by the International Council for Sciences and the Stakeholder Forum on global part- nerships for sustainable development. Knowledge platforms and hubs on the SDGs proliferate, including the Canadian “SDG Knowledge Hub” of the International Institute for Sustainable Development. There is already a mobile app (SDGs in Ac- tion) and planning simulation tools such as the iSDG. Crafted in a manner that integrates eco- nomic prosperity and social development while moving towards preserving environ- mental viability, the SDGs are a bold col- lective move to address the root causes of poverty, social injustices and environmen- tal degradation. There is a total of 17 Goals with 169 Tar- the Sustainable Development Goals Nenad Rava