Leaders, influencers, scholars and creative thinkers are looking at how New Zealand can make progress in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a day-long summit hosted by Victoria University of Wellington on April 23.
The inaugural Sustainable Development Goals Summit held in Wellington aims to unite organisations from across all sectors to align their purposes and provide leadership on how the country can achieve the UN’s 17 global goals to ‘transform our world’ by ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all by 2030.
Summit convenor Marjan van den Belt says in a media release that it’s an exciting opportunity to hear voices from across business, government, civil society and the tertiary sector and develop actionable, investable ideas on how to progress the SDGs.
“As a starting point, the summit will enable people from all over the country, who would otherwise never meet, to build partnerships and work towards achieving the SDGs. We’ll get the chance to hear what work is already being done around these goals from each sector and decide what’s important going forward. We’ll also work to develop a common language and agree to metrics to monitor progress—these will be key to creating partnerships to achieve common goals,” she says.
The Rt Hon. Helen Clark, an advocate of the SDGs, will open the summit with a video message, followed by keynote speeches from Lisa Martin (Sanford), Andrea Carmen (International Indian Treaty Council), Hugo G. von Meijenfeldt (Dutch Coordinator Implementation SDGs), and Hon. James Shaw (Minister for Climate Change).
Panel sessions will run throughout the day to explore topics such as what the government needs to do to act on SDGs and how leading New Zealand businesses are using the SDGs to help unlock value.
What: Sustainable Development Goals Summit
When: 23 April 2018
Where: Victoria University Pipitea Campus, Lecture Theatre 1, Rutherford House, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington
