Partners for Sustainable Development

By Sami Al-Hakimi

Working on many aspects of the Millennium Development Goals over the past 15 years has taught us how important people’s participation and ownership is to make change sustainable. This important lesson learnt from the Millennium Development Goals is now reflected in the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, which is universal, transformational, holistic and people-centered, and will leave no one behind. 

"We need people to be part of identifying the problems, and to be part of building the solutions"

In some ways, volunteerism’s nature as an industry dependent on the participation of people makes it sustainable. Volunteerism and volunteers are the ultimate renewable resource for sustainable development goal delivery across all thematic areas, whether on specific goals such as those on health, gender, education, sustainable consumption or environmental protection, or as a cross-cutting means of implementation that engages people on the issues they are facing. Volunteerism can help to expand and mobilize constituencies, and to engage people in national planning and implementation for sustainable development goals. And volunteer groups can help to localize the new agenda by providing new spaces of interaction between governments and people for concrete and scalable actions.

Notably, volunteering can have a “ripple effect”: when community members see others volunteering and recognize the impact of their donated time, they may be inspired to become “active citizens” and get involved in volunteering themselves. Volunteering can of course support social, economic and environmental change and is a driver of civic engagement. Goal 17, which looks to “strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”, could be supported by volunteerism. Not only can volunteers help build networks within communities, they can reinforce the implementation of the goals, by mobilizing citizens to get involved in the issues that affect them.

"Strengthen people’s ownership of the development agenda through enhanced civic engagement"

Sustainable development cannot be achieved without full engagement of individuals and communities.

The SDGs represent a people-driven, transformative agenda built on the foundations of transparency, participation and inclusion. The SDGs matter to all of us as we have a shared responsibility for our future and that of our planet. Without clear goals and measurable targets, as well as comprehensive data sets that allow to analyze the situation, including at the local level, we risk leaving the most vulnerable behind and not properly addressing new challenges that impede development and harm our planet. Achieving the SDGs will depend, among others, on the degree of ownership and engagement of people in addressing them.

“Leave no one behind in the new development agenda” 

Source: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) report.

Leaving no one behind ultimately will require sustained political will, courage and targeted financial investment. It is more expensive to work with the hardest-to-reach groups of people. However, money is not the only resource needed to reach the hardest-to-reach – human resources are also vital. Here, volunteers and grassroots community organizations can help provide a much needed link to those who are often furthest from the sight of governments and official development actors.

Deep contextual, social, political, gender and economic exclusion analysis is needed to identify the who, how and why of exclusion in different sectors, institutions and localities. Without this level of analysis, interventions will not address the structural or root causes of exclusion or tackle hidden assumptions and stereotypical beliefs. Real change will not be possible. Volunteers can support the ‘data revolution’ required by the new Agenda and help measure progress on SDG implementation through collecting data, providing expertise and supporting participatory forms of planning and monitoring, and helping to disseminate results.

In this regard, volunteerism is a form of civic engagement that can strengthen the accountability between governments and citizens in the next decades. It’s an important accountability tool to empower people to challenge their government on the status of the development goals. Volunteers have and will continue to bring voices of people into relevant debates to identify problems and define solutions.the role of volunteers and volunteerism in the global effort to create a better world.