MANIFESTING THE VISION OF THE ONE HUMANITY

As we look at the world scene today, it is becoming more and more obvious that major changes are needed. The relationships between citizens and the state; between worshippers and priesthood; between workers and management: all are in urgent need of re-vision. If they are to stay relevant, institutions of all kinds need to draw fresh inspiration from the ideals which first brought them into being. They need to learn to transfigure life in terms of accomplishment.

World servers are those who are actively involved in this process of re-imagining ways of life. They do this through their commitment to deep reflection on humanity’s problems . This reflection puts them in touch with the world of abstract Ideas – timeless principles of living thought energy, such as Freedom and Equality, which can be fashioned into new forms to suit the challenges of the times.

Thinking through ways in which human relations and social structures can embody universal principles has been a characteristic of the modern age. This is most evident in the major International Reports and Declarations of recent decades. Reports are thoughtful analyses of what is currently not working well, along with suggested remedies; while Declarations are rallying calls for action. While Reports may inform action, Declarations are intended to inspire action; or, put another way, Declarations are about orienting towards a goal/purpose, while Reports offer the more detailed techniques for building the path to that goal. Both are needed.

The UN has obviously been at the forefront of work in this field – e.g. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Our Common Future; the major Conferences of the 1990s, the Millennium Development Goals; etc.. Other groups have also adopted this model – the Brandt Commission’s North-South and Common Crisis; the Earth Charter; Our Global Neighbourhood; The Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth etc..

Two recent examples of significant Declarations are Share the World’s Resources Global Call for Sharing (www.sharing.org/global-call); and the Fuji Declaration, (http://fujideclaration.org) initiated by the founders of the Club of Budapest, Dr. Ervin Laszlo, and the Goi Peace Foundation, Masami Saionji and Hiroo Saoinji. The Global Call for Sharing also comes with an associated Report, Sharing as Our Common Cause (www.sharing.org/common-cause), exploring the rationale for the Declaration, and giving examples of how the Ideal of Sharing is currently working out in many different fields (see Review inside).

In the articles which follow, we look first at some of the most significant Declarations and Reports issued over the last few decades, and then at the UN’s major contribution through the promotion of the Millennium Development Goals, and its current focus on developing a new agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals. Through this inspiring work in the world of consciousness, of Ideas and Ideals, the UN and World Servers everywhere are helping to rebuild the shrine of human living. This theme will be explored in a number of different ways at our annual seminar in London, New York and Geneva on November 14, to which you are warmly invited.

 

A CONSCIENCE OF WHOLENESS

The seventy year period since the founding of the UN in 1945, when the Interdependent Age might be said to have begun, has seen the gradual emergence of a conscience of wholeness. As a species we are developing an intuitive sense of what is right and wrong in the relations between peoples and nations, alongside a body of experience in coordinating and planning action that reflects and responds to that conscience. When we get impatient about apparent lack of progress (and it is good that we do get impatient) we need to remind ourselves that ancient habits informed by separateness have conditioned who we are for centuries. As Kofi Anan has remarked, the spirit of international community is still ‘hardly more than embryonic’. Its development cannot be rushed. It takes time for a global conscience to put down roots – generations of persistent wilful activity and profound reflection by people of goodwill in all walks of life and all professions.    

Yet the still embryonic sense that we are all part of a global community is changing the world. The seventy years since 1945 can be seen as a time when people of goodwill have increasingly and repeatedly been inspired to transform the shrine of human living in ways that reflect their awareness of wholeness. One of the key areas where we can trace the history of this process is in the treaties, reports, declarations and charters of major global commissions, conferences, and negotiations. It is here that we see the vision coming into shape at a global level, principles of wholeness gaining clarity and definition, and finding expression in legal frameworks. These are not voices from the fringe – they reflect humanity as a whole (governments and people) finding consensus as they help to shape the future around principles of human freedom and human unity (rights and responsibilities).

In 1945 there was little awareness of humanity’s relationship with the natural world of animals and plants, water and soil, and the air we breathe. In subsequent decades this has changed – so much so that one of the core dynamics in crafting an agenda to respond to the wholeness vision has been the question of how to address all the dimensions of meeting human needs while at the same time caring for the Earth.

In every field of human living there have been watershed declarations and reports that have been the product of dialogue between people of goodwill from different cultures, economic and political groups. Some of the most influential documents that have emerged out of these concentrated dialogues include:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948

The Charter of the United Nations echoes the Four Freedoms jointly declared by the allies in the Second World War. It famously affirms that every individual human being has a natural dignity and value with fundamental rights and freedoms. Eleanor Roosevelt chaired a Drafting Committee tasked with defining those rights. Representatives from different parts of the world and different political beliefs struggled to find consensus. On December 10 1948, the Universal Declaration prepared by the Committee was adopted by 48 members of the General Assembly of the UN – including established Western powers like the UK, the US, Netherlands and France, alongside newly independent nations such as India and the Philippines, and a diversity of countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Costa Rica and Argentina. Even in 1948 this truly was a universal affirmation of the individual. Articles 1 and 2 of the Declaration affirm universal principles of dignity, liberty, equality and brotherhood. These form the foundation of the Declaration. Seven paragraphs in the preamble set out the reasons for the Declaration, beginning with the primary recognition that the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of every individual member of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. The bulk of the articles specify individual, cultural, social and spiritual rights.

This honoring of the individual – in law and in ethics – is central to the wholeness vision. The shrine of human living depends on individual human beings – beings with soul and personality. The Declaration challenges every community to protect, empower and enable its individual members. As Eleanor Roosevelt remarked on the 10^th Anniversary of the Declaration: 

Where do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.

If anyone doubts the significance of the Declaration in shaping the modern world they can be reminded that it has been incorporated into or has influenced most national constitutions since 1948 and it is the foundation and inspiration for an increasing number of national laws and international treaties.

Brandt Commission 1977 – 1983

In 1977 World Bank President, Robert McNamara, in an attempt to break the log-jam of cold war diplomacy and the lack of progress in North-South relations, proposed the establishment of a commission of politicians and economists of international stature who would consult together as individuals and come up with a set of proposals for global development. Former German Chancellor Willy Brandt chaired the Independent Commission on International Development Issues. It included former Heads of State and leading diplomats from countries of the North and South. The goal was to change the thinking in government negotiations between the North and South by stimulating public opinion in support of global development (educating and informing goodwill networks around the world) and by specific proposals on issues of food and agricultural development, aid, energy, trade, international monetary and financial reform, environment, population growth and global negotiations. The Commissions two reports, North-South (1980) and Common Crisis (1983) offered clearly thought through possibilities for the future with a view of development that emphasized a dual relationship: the northern nations dependent on the poor countries for their wealth, and the poor countries dependent on the North for their development.  

Brundtland Commission / World Commission on Environment & Development 1983 – 1987

Former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland was invited by the UN Secretary General to form an independent commission of world leaders and experts to develop proposals that could unite governments in initiatives to reduce poverty while at the same time responding to the growing environmental crisis. In 1987 the Commission produced its influential report: Our Common Future which, for the first time, introduced the term sustainable development. Development considered in terms of meeting the needs of the world’s poorest people, cannot be separated from the well-being of the environment: ...the "environment" is where we live; and "development" is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable.   

Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989

Ever since the 1920’s and the pioneering work of Save the Children founder Eglantyne Jebb there has been a focus on the need to provide special protection to the rights of the child. In 1924 the League of Nations endorsed a World Child Welfare Charter defining five rights and in 1959 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a Declaration of the Rights of the Child with ten principles. This focus on children’s rights culminated in 1989 with the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. The Convention sets out civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of all children below the age of 18. It is an important milestone because nations that ratify the Convention are obliged by international law to report on progress they are making towards implementation. To date all members of the United Nations have signed the Convention with the exception of the United States and Somalia. 

Human Development Reports 1990 – present

Launched in 1990, the annual Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have been hugely influential in providing reputable statistics and analysis measuring development in terms of human beings meeting basic needs (health care, housing, security, education) rather than economic growth. The reports are produced by an independent team of leading scholars and experts from different regions, initially led by Pakistani Mahbub ul Haq and Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. Writing in the first report, Haq noted: “People are the real wealth of a nation. The basic objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives. This may appear to be a simple truth. But it is often forgotten in the immediate concern with the accumulation of commodities and financial wealth.” Major tools for comparing development in different regions have been pioneered by the annual reports – including the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index, the Gender Inequality Index and the Human Development Index.

Rio Declaration & Agenda 21 1992

In June 1992 governments met in Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Earth Summit – earlier, in 1972, they had met in Stockholm at a Conference on the Human Environment. By 1992, following the report of the Brundtland Commission, there was a clear understanding that human development and the elimination of poverty now had to be achieved without further damaging the environment.  The Rio event was the first major international conference that was accompanied by a large gathering of thousands of environmental and development activists, popular movements, business leaders and others. Governments adopted the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development which proclaimed 27 principles, including the important Principle 4: In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it. The most important agreement at the 1992 Summit was the list of recommended actions at the local, national and global level for the 21^st century: Agenda 21. Forty chapters specify actions to be taken for sustainable development. The document, which has been modified at subsequent UN gatherings on the environment, has been hugely influential, guiding countless municipalities and organizations around the world as they develop environmental policies. One sign of its impact is that the Earth Summit has been reconvened every ten years since 1992 - 2002 in Johannesburg, and 2012 again in Rio when the groundwork for the Sustainable Development Goals was laid. 

Commission on Global Governance 1992 – 1995

The ending of the Cold War created a new environment for global cooperation and fresh opportunities to make progress in fulfilling the principles enshrined in the UN Charter. Twenty eight individuals under the leadership of former Swedish Prime Minister, Ingvar Carlsson, and former Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal of Guyana established the Commission on the initiative of Willy Brandt and members of other global groups. The Commission’s Report, Our Global Neighbourhood, was presented to the UN General Assembly for review in 1995. It presented a call to action for leaders of governments and civil society to work together under a common world ethic and shared universal values. Policy recommendations included reform of the United Nations and programs for managing economic interdependence. 

Earth Charter 2000

The Earth Charter is a statement of fundamental values and principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society. It is notable because it was the result of exhaustive consultations and dialogues over a six year period between representatives of civil society organizations from every part of the world and all sectors of society. The negotiation process was overseen by a commission formed by Maurice Strong (Chair of the UN Earth Summit in Rio in 1992) and Mikhail Gorbachev. The Charter affirms the need for a change of mind and heart requiring a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. It further recognizes that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part. The Earth Charter has the endorsement of groups representing millions of people, including over 250 universities around the world, UNESCO, religious groups, numerous cities and metropolitan authorities.

Charter for Compassion 2009

Author Karen Armstrong was awarded the annual TED Prize in February 2008. Awardees of the Prize are invited to make ‘One Wish to Change the World’ – and the TED community offers support in achieving that wish. Armstrong wished for help “with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers...and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect.” Support grew quickly and thousands of people from around the world offered ideas for the Charter. One year after the TED award a multi-faith, multi-national group of religious thinkers and leaders met in Switzerland to review all the submissions and draft the final Charter.  Over 75 events took place simultaneously on November 12, 2009 when the Charter was formally launched. The Charter calls upon all men and women to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion … to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity …. It affirms that: We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries….  Since 2009 hundreds of organizations, numerous cities, the Australian Parliament and tens of thousands of individuals have signed the Charter; almost 300 communities and cities are in process of creating a Compassionate Action Plan. 

These are just some of the commissions and reports that have been influential in developing a global conscience and mobilizing goodwill forces in the work of rebuilding the shrine of human living. Many initiatives like the Club of Rome, the Club of Budapest, the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues, and this year’s Fuji Declaration have not been included because of lack of space.

 

REVIEW, Sharing as Our Common Cause, from Share the World’s Resources (download at www.sharing.org/common-cause)

In this report, Share the World’s Resources (a civil society organisation campaigning for a fairer sharing of wealth, power and resources within and between nations) seek to demonstrate how a call for the key principle of sharing is central to a growing worldwide movement of global citizens. The report notes the increasing discussion of extremes of inequality, and the growth of the ‘commons’ movement, which frames many of our most pressing issues in terms of our need to cooperatively protect the shared resources of Earth. It argues that a call for sharing “holds the potential to connect disparate campaign groups, activists and social movements under a common theme and vision.” The report also notes its potential to engage public opinion.

In five sections, Sharing as Our Common Cause maps out how sharing is central to the key themes of social justice, environmental stewardship, global peace, participatory democracy, and multi-issue movements. In each section, the themes are further sub-divided into specific topics, and the connection with sharing is explored in more detail, including reference to organisations active within the topic areas, and relevant publications.

In conclusion, the report makes the following arresting points:

1. A call for sharing represents unity in diversity
2. Sharing embodies a positive proposal beyond ‘isms’ and factional politics
3. We all understand the human value of sharing
4. The demand for sharing is already on the rise
5. A global call for sharing has radical implications.

Its final recommendations are:

1. Integrate the message of sharing into advocacy and campaigning activities
2. Mobilise on collective platforms for sharing
3. Sign and promote Share the World’s Resources global call for sharing (www.sharing.org/global-call)

The report, written in a clear, concise, non-technical style, makes a compelling case for the key importance of the principle of sharing, and deserves a wide audience.

 

SUSTAINABILITY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

How do we learn from the past rather than hold onto it; yet live in the real present moment while focusing on the future? Recognising unfolding divergent future paths is not straightforward either. There is the concrete road ahead of us if we keep doing what we have always done and don’t change; or the less trodden path of action for positive change; or again the overgrown path of dreamy wishful thinking. Even if we cut through the haze of personal and global conflicting demands, interests and agendas, it takes great skill to see the real need, and then to set intention, respond to the call to action, yet remain open to change. As the saying goes “when the facts change, I change my mind”. That is the challenge before humanity: to change our minds, action and direction in light of new facts rather than cling to the past and ignore the future.

This is also the challenge of the Millennium Goals and the growing movement for Sustainability. Sustainability in itself is an interesting concept – one of many definitions of Sustainability is that it is ‘an ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself’. So how does ‘movement’ fit into maintaining? It might help to first look at what were the original goals of the Millennium Summit, and the context surrounding this important event.

The Summit came after a period of major UN conferences exploring themes as diverse as women, population and environment throughout the 90s. Prior to the Millennium Summit, there was a consultation period of two years, exploring key global issues such as human rights, poverty and the environment.  There is a history of looking at ‘global issues’, setting targets, some achieved, others not; but this was to be a marker for the symbolic date of the second millennium, to make a new stand and bring renewed energy to existing problems. The incredible task was to identify the real issues, set targets, and meet them; then hopefully, the world would be a better place. Anyone who has really thought about these issues will be aware of just how inextricably linked they are with each other.

Millennium Declaration

At the 2000 Summit, world leaders approved and adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. Tolerance and solidarity was to be encouraged, while asserting that every individual has the right to dignity, freedom, equality, and a basic standard of living free from hunger and violence. Now the even harder task was to come, of making those rights achievable.

Of course, in order to achieve and enjoy these rights, some of the major world problems would first have to be correctly identified, then addressed and actioned. Criticism has been made of the goals and targets set, but carving the world situation up into manageable pieces will never be easy. Given the complexity of the issues, the number of peoples, languages, and cultures involved, the different starting points and such great variance in economic wealth, this would be no easy project for an individual nation let alone the whole world of nations. So, it is wise to suspend judgement on the fine details and view it as a starting point and work in progress.

Goals

Thus, eight international Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were identified following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000:

1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV / AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability
8. To develop a global partnership for development

On the financial side, in 2005 the G8 finance ministers agreed to provide funds to cancel up to $55 billion owed by the poorest countries in debt. There is a fine line and contentious debate on how much money is directed to immediate needs and to developmental needs.  We also need to consider that just as there is great variance in economic, political and social cultures across the globe, there is also great spiritual variance in terms of understanding and practice. These factors in themselves can have a major influence over how and where money, resources and energy are distributed, and the rights and freedoms enjoyed by the population. For example, money directed towards guns and oppressive military equipment viewed as ‘essentials’ by one country can be viewed as a waste of valuable resources and an exploitation of human rights by another. What is more, there will often be a difference between the views of the majority of the people of any country and the views of politicians and organised business.

Targets and indicators were set and linked to each of the eight goals in order to achieve the Rights set out in the Declaration by 2015. However, while very useful as a framework, it is arguable that goals and targets do not provide a complete picture, and relying on them without the flexibility of spontaneity may lead to a skewed impression of set-backs, progress and the way forward. Furthermore while national targets and goals might sometimes be met, these reflect percentages of the national population, so that there can still be significant numbers of people or disadvantaged groups within a country who have not met the target.

Love, Compassion & Goodwill

How do love, compassion and goodwill come into the picture of targets and goal setting? When and where does patience, tenacity and right timing of action start and end? Are the initial targets and goals sustainable? If we try and deal with the embedded complexities of global issues purely on the surface, then we are limited as to what we can do and achieve. It is by bringing in renewed energy and will, that the task becomes somewhat easier.

We need to remember that target setting and goal achievement is a tool and framework to work within.  When targets are set, no one knows just what will spontaneously occur in the interim between goal setting and goal achievement. The majority of us are probably familiar with target and goal setting at work to justify expenditure, or in our personal lives to motivate us to do more, and be more. But over-reliance on targets and goals can present a skewed impression of progress. We need to also take into account spontaneous events that are not bound by the laws of targets and goal setting. 

The Case of Nepal

For example, consider Nepal, South Asia's poorest country. In spite of this disadvantage, by concentrating on its poorest areas and doubling health expenditure, the Nepalese succeeded in halving maternal mortality rates, which in turn impacts on the health and finance of the family, which in turn impacts on the rights and freedoms enjoyed by the family and society. So based on a simple target of maternal health, significant progress was made.

However, in April and May 2015, Nepal suffered two earthquakes of devastating proportion.  The aftermath and complexity of problems in cleaning up and moving on is enormous. But Nepal is not alone; the world looked on and acted.  Enormous goodwill, money and resources are currently being directed to Nepal.  Even using the best technology for predictions, this would not have been taken into account in 2000 when the goals were set for 2015.

While for Nepal, there may be a set-back in terms of financial expenditure, and achieving targets and goals, in terms of global goodwill, surely world awareness, contributions made, and the prayers and good intentions put out into the world to aid Nepal account for something, even if they can’t yet be measured?

Returning to the global picture, attempts made to measure progress on the MDGs indicate uneven progress.  In the run up to 2015, some countries were doing well and achieving, while it looked like others were unlikely to achieve any goals set. In the Foreword to the 2015 report on the MDGs, Ban Ki-Moon noted that the MDGs, “helped to lift more than one billion people out of extreme poverty, to make inroads against hunger, to enable more girls to attend school than ever before and to protect our planet. They generated new and innovative partnerships, galvanized public opinion and showed the immense value of setting ambitious goals. By putting people and their immediate needs at the forefront, the MDGs reshaped decision-making in developed and developing countries alike. Yet for all the remarkable gains, I am keenly aware that inequalities persist and that progress has been uneven.”

The aspirational quality of the Millennium Development Goals, coupled with their simplicity, has taken the international community a long way. The very fact that they have remained as a visible focus for governments and civil society for fifteen years, when other UN goals have faded from view, is notable. So, can humanity come up with a set  of new goals that will act as a pole star for global progress in the next fifteen years?

Sustainable Development Goals

In 2012, Markus Loewe of the German Development Institute noted that there have been two major strands in development thinking over the last twenty years: one focused on reducing poverty in developing countries; and the other focused on the ecological idea of sustainability, first given prominence at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. What the SDG process seeks to do is to unite these two strands into one integrated agenda. There will inevitably be creative tensions in this process, as there are differences of emphasis: for example, sustainability tends to favour solutions which take into account the longer term. But it is becoming clearer by the day that all things are interdependent, that poverty and ecological disruption cannot be viewed in isolation, and so the world is developing an agenda that recognises and honours this fact.

Through our World Goodwill at the UN blog (http://lucis.typepad.com/wg-un/), a number of recent posts cover some of the thinking and planning for the SDG summit in September 2015 at the UN in New York. A picture emerges of a complex process involving many different actors – civil society organisations, academia, governments and businesses: a process that will hopefully result in a visionary agenda that will fire the imagination of people across the world in the years ahead. Two defining differences between the MDGs and the draft SDGs can be seen. Firstly, while the MDGs primarily focused on solving the problems of less developed nations, the SDGs instead acknowledge that the problems of sustainable development are ones that all nations face. And secondly, the ecological nature of many of the issues means that the scope is extended still further, to include the responsibility which humanity bears for its relations to the other kingdoms of nature. Thus, the SDGs will be a more complete expression of the principle of universality, highlighted by Ban Ki-Moon in his Synthesis Report on the Post-2015 Agenda. As he explains, the SDG agenda is addressed to all nations and all peoples, taking account of ecological, economic, and social interdependence, while also recognizing the realities of differentiated national needs and capacities.

Another aspect of this more inclusive process is reflected in the wide involvement of many groups in the consultations and discussions prior to the Summit. What remains to be seen is if this wide involvement can be translated into an ongoing movement with the momentum needed to implement the agenda. As noted in a recent paper by Jimena Leiva-Roesch, Youssef Mahmoud, and Steve Nation, “The SDGs can unleash a new potential for everyone to understand that the actions they are undertaking separately are now coalescing into a world agenda. But this will require authentic leadership, from the bottom up as well as from the top down.”1 And for this leadership to energise and engage the world’s people, it is important that the agenda of the SDGs be given inspiring form.

The seventeen draft goals 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

As the SDGs currently stand, do they present a compelling agenda for mending the relationships not just between human beings, but with all the kingdoms of nature? Certainly, there will be scope over the next fifteen years for the UN, global civil society, governments and other actors to refine and ensoul the SDGs with the fire of their passionate commitment.

Concerned people of goodwill are invited to participate in the subjective support of the SDG Summit, which takes place from the 25^th to the 27^th September, through the Cycle of Conferences meditation initiative. By the united power of lighted, purposeful thought, we can support the participants in this vital effort to bring ideals into practical expression, giving shape and direction to human progress.

1. Jimena Leiva-Roesch, Youssef Mahmoud, and Steve Nation, Building a Sustainable Future Requires Leadership from State and Citizen, http://bit.ly/1HRqs1a