Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. On behalf of each respective country and humanity at large, representatives and stakeholders from all member states established a cohesive framework for a prosperous world. At the core of this global, unified vision are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Also known as the “Global Goals,” the SDGs are to be achieved by 2030. With recognition of the importance of eradicating global poverty as fundamental to humanity’s flourishing, the SDGs encompass 17 objectives. The 17 SDGs are as follows:

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

All Embrace Relief programs are in alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In pursuit of advancing the SDGs, we have implemented campaigns that support nearly every Global Goal. For instance, as clearly articulated in the Preamble to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, “[we] seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls” (“Preamble”). Accordingly, Embrace Relief’s women’s empowerment campaign seeks to increase women’s participation in the formal economy by providing the vocational training necessary for gainful employment. Therefore, we have implemented vocational training programs for women in Kenya, Haiti, and the US. These initiatives have provided women with the means to economically contribute to their families and communities, a foundational component of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Similarly, SDG 6, “Clean Water and Sanitation” is reinforced in the over 270 water wells built in several countries that have provided clean drinking water to over 270,000 people in the developing world. Also, Embrace Relief has conducted 2,100 cataract surgeries and completed 15,350 health checkups globally, efforts that are essential for advancing SDG 3, “Good Health and Well Being”. From education programs to hunger relief efforts, every initiative implemented by Embrace Relief is conducive to the foremost objectives of the Agenda for Sustainable Development, eradicating extreme poverty, decreasing human suffering, and ultimately, advancing humanity’s capacity to thrive in an increasingly interdependent world.