The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Why Should Christians Support Them?
These were the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight goals to achieve a number of outcomes such as eliminating extreme poverty, getting more children in education, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability, and promoting a global partnership for development. These goals were time-bound (they were to be achieved by 2015) and had measurable targets attached to them. 189 member nations signed up to achieving these goals.[1]
Writing about the MDGs, Steve Bradbury suggests:
What makes these goals so remarkable is their clear commitment to a timetable. By being so time-specific, they give us an exceptional set of “advocacy levers”. The development community, and all who are committed to working for a more just and compassionate world, can and must use these levers to hold our leaders accountable and insist that they fulfil their promises. If we fail in this, the MDGs will undoubtedly go the way of many other “commitments” to end poverty–another set of broken promises to the poor, another tragic joke at their expense.[2]
On a personal note, it was this statement and the understanding that the MDGs had been agreed to by almost all the member nations of the United Nations that convinced me that these goals provided the world community with an opportunity not to be missed.
As a consequence, I have been an occasional “evangelist” for the MDGs, and now the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), preaching sermons about them, and writing some articles for Anglican Taonga.[3] In the early years of this century, I sat on a committee comprising representatives of various Christian NGOs (Aid agencies and others), trying to devise ways to advocate for, and promote awareness of, the MDGs. I was surprised at how little advance we could make beyond meeting and talking but decided that these agencies were busy as “ambulances at the bottom of the cliff” with little time for “advocacy.”
As I hope to show in this article, the SDGs are never more important than at the present time as we grapple with world-wide issues such as overcoming and recovering from the pandemic, and facing the challenges brought by climate change. Furthermore, in the face of the conflict in Ukraine, and current tensions between the United States and China, as well as in our region (as I prepare this article, the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister to several Pacific Island nations is causing concern), I suggest that “global goals” to bring development and cooperation are never more needed. However, a sustained and strong focus on the SDGs will only really come when populations insist their governments make them a priority in policies and programmes. Readers of Stimulus, as thoughtful and aware Christians, are as well-placed as any to be both informed and engaged in advocating for the SDGs.
The SDGs replace the MDGs.
While the MDGs did produce some significant achievements, it was clear as 2015 approached that many of the goals were not going to be met, and some regions were well behind.[4] Consequently, the United Nations began to work towards the development of a new agenda (sometimes called Agenda 2030, the new target date). The result was the development of seventeen SDGs, which were adopted by the member nations of the United Nations in September 2015. There were a number of improvements over the MDGs, two being a greater focus on sustainability, and the recognition that these goals were not simply something to which developing countries should attend. Now the SDGs were to be a truly global agenda, with every country, (developed or developing) striving to achieve the goals.
The SDGs are intended to be applied in each country according to the priorities a given country sets. They are a “template” for development, as it were, but each nation is to adapt its work on them according to local conditions, with emphasis placed on the goals considered most urgent or required by national considerations. One of the strategies adopted in developing the SDGs was to get “buy in” from civil society by holding a series of eighty-three national conversations, which included organisations and businesses in the private sector, think tanks, and in particular, groups and communities normally marginalized, and especially young people.[5]
The seventeen SDGs encompass a range of issues from goals for ending poverty, ensuring food security, promoting good health and well-being, to providing quality education for all, achieving gender equality, and providing decent work and economic growth. A number of them address aspects of climate change and environmental issues. Goal number thirteen specifically targets action to combat climate change, while others deal with getting clean water and sanitation, providing access to affordable and clean energy, conserving and sustainably using the oceans, and sustainably managing various forms of life on land.
Goal number sixteen aims to promote peace and justice, attempts to reduce all forms of violence, and find ways to avoid and solve conflict situations. The seventeenth goal is perhaps one of the most important of all. It aims to build a global partnership for the goals, so that the world’s nations work together to address the problems, challenges, and issues facing our world, and co-operate to achieve all the other goals.[6]
As our world faces the existential threat of climate change, the ongoing effects of a global pandemic, a war in Ukraine, not to mention tensions between superpowers, and nations over trade, militarization, the development of nuclear weapons, and in many parts of the world endemic corruption and conflicts, the SDGs surely provide us with a framework and global plan for addressing many of the issues that contribute to these problems.
Pragmatic reasons why widespread support of the SDGs is important.
There are good reasons why not only Christians, but people everywhere, and the institutions of civil society, communities, and corporations, should support the SDGs. The first is, of course, that we have been gifted these “advocacy levers” by which to hold our governments to account for achieving the goals. But this will require widespread knowledge of the SDGs, and “buy-in” to their goals and targets by many citizens to ensure that governments remain focused on the task at hand.
A further reason is that where a government’s focus is kept upon achieving the goals domestically, there will, hopefully, be less attention and energy directed at such distractions as trade wars, attempts to gain or retain economic or military ascendency, or other inter-national power plays. There is no nation on earth, no matter how large or powerful, that does not have many issues and problems to address domestically. In New Zealand, we are made constantly aware of such issues as child poverty, domestic violence, homelessness, stresses on the health system, issues in the educational sector, gender disparities, among many other challenges. Attention to the SDGs, by all member nations, would not only begin to seriously address many of these challenges, but would also engender a sense that “we are all in this together.”
Beyond the domestic sphere, the SDGs provide us with a framework for working at global co-operation to tackle issues such as climate change, or the management and resolution of conflicts which cause global disruption, and local (if not regional) distress.
Why Christians should support the SDGs
There are many biblically derived reasons why Christians, in my opinion, should be eager to promote and support the SDGs. To begin with, the SDGs aim to bring a reduction in poverty, equity between genders, freedom, flourishing, and well-being to all people. Many of the values espoused by the SDGs are surely those that express the heart of God.
The Old Testament bears witness to the fact that God desires mercy, steadfast love, and justice (Mic 6:8; Isa 56:1; Hos 6:6; Amos 5:24). God has a care and concern for the poor, and especially the widow and orphan (Isa 1:17, 10:1–2; Exod 22:22; Deut 15:11, 24:14, 17; Lev 19:10). The immigrant and the stranger, the “resident alien” (NRSV), were all to be treated fairly and justly (Exod 22:21; Num 15:15–16; Deut 24:17).
Jesus shared the Old Testament’s concern for mercy and justice, and for caring for the disadvantaged. In Matthew 9:11–13, when Jesus’s disciples are challenged by some Pharisees about who Jesus was associating with, on learning of the criticism Jesus responded, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”[7] Again, when his disciples are challenged for eating grain plucked from a field on the Sabbath, Jesus defends them, and quotes Hosea 6:6, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless” (Matt 12:7).
Luke 4:16–19 presents Jesus as reading from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth. He then applies this reading to his mission (4:21), thereby indicating that he sees his role as one bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed (cf. Isa 58:6; 61:1-2). The gospel stories show Jesus fulfilling these roles in his healings, and in his association with those at the margins of society. Although his actions frequently put him off-side with those who considered them contrary to the religious requirements of the day (e.g., the prohibition against work on the Sabbath day), Jesus refused to bow to some of the conventional understandings. On one occasion he healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, and when challenged, said, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or destroy it?” (Luke 6:9). We do not know the backstory of the man he healed, or those of others, but we may surmise that many healings would have also released the healed person from poverty, and various forms of oppression. For instance, in Luke 7:11–17, Jesus raises the only son of a widow from death, thus, no doubt, restoring to her security and her source of support.
It is hard to imagine that God or Jesus would have difficulty with goals that are intended to “eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere” and “reduce by at least half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions …” (SDG Goal #1). Or to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” (SDG Goal #2). Or again, “to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (SDG Goal #3).[8]
The fourth beatitude, as Matthew reports it in “the Sermon on the Mount” is, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matt 5:6), while the sixth is: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt 5:8). One does not have to search far in the Old Testament to see that justice and righteousness are often paired (for instance, Pss 33:5, 89:14). [9]
A number of texts also pair righteousness with peace (Ps 85:10; Isa 32:17; Isa 9:7; and on the confluence of righteousness and peace, see James 3:18). Isaiah 9:7 is part of a wonderful passage about “the righteous reign of the coming king” (the heading given this passage in the NRSV), and includes the promise of a child who is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, who shall establish “endless peace” (see Isa 9:6, 7). This hope for peace is earlier noted in Isaiah, in a passage that speaks of all nations streaming up to the Lord’s house so that God may teach them God’s ways and that they may walk in God’s paths. It will be a time when nations “shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa 2:2–4; quotation from v. 4b).
This may seem a faint hope, even as some express the sentiment that they would not have expected war in Europe in 2022. Nonetheless, the SDGs provide targets that aim to “reduce inequality within and among countries” (SDG #10), and to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development” (SDG #16). Among the targets for this latter goal are the promotion of “the rule of law at national and international levels and [ensuring] equal access to justice for all” (16.3), and ending “abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against and torture of children” (16.2).[10] It is especially in pursuit of these that a “global partnership” (SDG #17) is essential.
As already mentioned, a number of the SDGs deal with goals and targets to address issues of environmental and climate concern. Indeed, Goal thirteen is specifically directed at taking urgent action “to combat climate change and its impacts,” while others deal with attaining “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy” sources, ensuring the availability of clean water and good sanitation, conserving and sustainably using the oceans and marine resources, and the good management of forests, combatting desertification, and halting biodiversity loss.[11]
It hardly seems necessary to outline why Christians should be concerned for “the care of creation” and environmental issues. We have the second creation story, in Genesis 2, from which we have derived the understanding that we are to care for our environment. Since the influential article in the journal Science, by Lynn White, in 1967, we have been made aware that the idea of human “dominion” over the animal, and natural world (see Gen 1:26, 28), has had devastating consequences for our environment arising out of a deep misunderstanding of what dominion should mean.[12]
I imagine some readers may be thinking that the priority for Christians should be to share the gospel, and to engage in the “Great Commission” to make disciples, and to convert and baptise people (Matt 28:16–20). Surely, the kingdom of God is about fulfilling a spiritual programme, not aligning Christian efforts with a “secular” programme such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals? Well, Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). Even if we consider the words about doing God’s will on earth as in heaven as a later addition by Matthew (or his tradition)—see by comparison Luke 11:2—I think that we can accept that Matthew captures Jesus’s intention for the character of the kingdom very well.[13] And in the great commission, Jesus instructed his disciples to teach the disciples they would make “to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
Jesus promoted the “both/and” principle, not the “either/or.” In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus denounces Pharisees and lawyers, who “tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others.” (Luke 11:42). Might we transfer that into an understanding that actions to bring justice, wellbeing, freedom and improved lives to people are as important and gospel-centred as evangelism and making disciples? In the past few decades, both evangelical institutions and organisations (such as the Lausanne movement, or the Micah Network) have recognized the wider gospel imperatives of social justice, concern for the environment, working at addressing the structural impediments to human wellbeing, and alleviating poverty. So have many Christian denominations: my own Anglican denomination includes “Care for Creation,” the transformation of unjust structures, and working for peace and reconciliation, among its “Five Marks of Mission.”[14] James K. Baxter wrote in his “Song to the Holy Spirit”: “Lord, Holy Spirit, You blow … inside and outside the fences.”[15] I would argue that the Holy Spirit is blowing “inside and outside the fences” in the development and implementation of the SDGs.
The Way Forward
The SDGs are not on the radar of many New Zealanders. But it is not as if they are completely unknown, and that nothing is being done to achieve them. In July 2017, the Labour/New Zealand First coalition government (with support from the Greens) under Jacinda Ardern published New Zealand’s first voluntary review of progress towards the SDGs.[16] This report includes a number of references to initiatives undertaken by companies and civil society groups, including a tree-planting programme by Vector Energy, a jobs training and skills acquisition programme, mainly for young people not in education or employment, by the Warehouse Group, and a collaboration between the Taranaki Regional Council and local landowners to develop a “Riparian Management Programme” to improve the water quality in Taranaki’s streams and rivers.[17]
The Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility published a report in 2017 on the attitudes of business and corporations towards the SDGs and their implementation. This included a section on New Zealand. The then CEO of Air New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, had this to say:
Air New Zealand’s company purpose enshrines [a] broader view of the role of business in society, and commits Air New Zealand to “supercharge New Zealand’s success socially, environmentally and economically.” This purpose places Air New Zealand in a strong position to advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals as we recognize that strong business is inextricably linked to a strong society.[18]
One hopes that Christopher Luxon remains committed to the same vision in his new role as Leader of the Opposition. Certainly, his previous commitment to promoting the SDG agenda (under his leadership Air New Zealand hosted a “sustainability breakfast event … for business leaders”),[19] and Jacinda Ardern’s commitment to the values and purposes of the SDGs,[20] augurs well for the potential of New Zealand’s engagement with these global goals.
However, the uptake for these SDGs in New Zealand, as in much of the developed world, has been slow. It is interesting to note that of the eighty-eight national (popular) consultations undertaken during the development of the SDGs, only four nations, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste represented what might be termed “our Oceania” region.[21] Very little attention is given to the SDGs by media outlets in New Zealand despite the fact that a former Prime Minister, the Honourable Helen Clark, headed up the United Nations Development Programme charged with promoting the SDGs. One major international magazine, Time, announced in its February 1/February 8, 2021 double issue that it was launching “an ambitious, decade-long project called TIME 2030.” Edward Felsenthal, Editor-in-Chief and CEO wrote,
Why 2030? That is the year by which the U.N.’s sustainable-development goals–targets on equality, poverty, health, growth and sustainability—will be met or missed. Adopted in a rare moment of global consensus by every member state of the U.N., these SDGs have become key benchmarks for commitments by policymakers and business leaders alike. By 2030, we will know whether we’re on the path toward a better planet. This is a shared enterprise, in which we all have a role to play … We are all, as we say in the journalism world, on deadline.[22]
A sentiment occasionally expressed is that the pandemic presents us with a moment for change, a chance to reset of global co-operation, and a new way of doing things. Felsenthal calls this time an “inflection point.” As he says, the crises are multiple. Climate-change is an existential threat and is thus getting a lot of attention. But there are many others, not the least the ongoing pandemic and its attendant economic challenges. There is also the threat of nuclear war, which again raises its head after some thought it had receded.
While she was the Administrator of the UNDP, Helen Clark gave many speeches on sustainable development and the SDGs. On one occasion, she spoke of how transition out of crisis should be used as “as a unique opportunity to address underlying vulnerabilities.”[23] We are at such a moment: unfortunately, transition out of crisis, in our current world, will be a long and arduous road. The pandemic has put some of the gains previously made into reverse.[24] However, in “Agenda 2030” we have a plan to hand. It has been agreed to by all the member states of the United Nations. We need not dream it up, we do need to ensure that it is implemented. The SDGs will have the best chance of being implemented if civil society and citizens of the nations catch the vision and press their governments to continue to work steadily towards achieving these goals.
As Christians, I believe we can and should support the implementation of the SDGs knowing that our God is a God who loves justice, peace, and the wellbeing of all, especially the marginalized and vulnerable. Furthermore, we have resources of hope, redemption, grace, and love to enable us to last the distance.
Derek Tovey retired from St John’s College as lecturer in New Testament in 2015. He currently lives in Glen Eden, Auckland. His concern for global poverty and debt reduction was first expressed in support for the “Jubilee 2000” project, and has continued into his interest in, and support of, the MDGs and the SDGs.
[1] Some documents state the number as 191 member nations. However, Afghanistan, for instance, did not attend and signed up to the MDGs in 2004.
[2] Steve Bradbury, “The Micah Challenge”, TEAR TALK (Winter 2004): 8; emphasis original. “The Micah Challenge is a worldwide call to Christians and churches to lobby, encourage and remind governments of their responsibility to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are met by 2015 …” The Micah Challenge came out of the Micah Network, a global alliance of more than 275 evangelical relief, development, and advocacy organisations. Steve Bradbury was then National Director of TEAR (The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund) Australia, Chair of the Micah Network, and International Co-Chair of the Micah Challenge.
[3] Derek Tovey, “Make Poverty History? Yeah, Right”, Anglican Taonga 19.16–17 (Easter 2006): 46; idem, “17 Ways to Wage Peace on Earth,” Anglican Taonga 51(Eastertide 2016): 28–29.
[4] On the achievements made by the MDGs, see The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015 (United Nations) 4–7; https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev%20(July%201).pdf.
[5] See “The Global Conversation Begins: Emerging Views for a New Development Agenda” (United Nations Development Group, 2013), iii.; https://www.undp.org/publications/global-conversation-begins-emerging-views-new-development-agenda. See also “A Million Voices: The World We Want. A Sustainable Future with Dignity for All” (United Nations Development Group, 2013); https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/publications/UNDG_A-Million-Voices.pdf.
[6] For a brief overview of all seventeen goals, google:https://sdgs.un.org/goals
[7] All quotations from the Bible are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), unless specified.
[8] See “Report of the Open Working Group of the General Assembly [of the United Nations] on Sustainable Development Goals (published 12 August, 2014), pp. 11, 12.https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html
[9] See also Prov 21:3, 21; Isa 9:7, 28:17; Amos 5:24; Hos 10:12 (although here NRSV has “steadfast love” not justice); Jer 22:3; 23:5; Ezek 33:14. In some of these texts, e.g., Ps 33:5 (LXX 32:5), Prov 21:21 and Isa 28:17, the Septuagint (LXX) has a word for “justice” (eleēmosunēs/n)–in the case of Ps 33:5, for “righteousness”– that means “compassion, [a] kindly, charitable disposition,” and is derived from eleos, meaning “mercy, kindness, compassion.” See T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Louvain: Peeters, 2009), 223. It is interesting to note that Jer 22:3, in calling for the king of Judah, and all who enter the gates of his palace to “act with justice and righteousness,” specifically mentions that no wrong should be done to “the alien, the orphan, and the widow.” A further point of interest is that Isa 28:17 is preceded by a verse that speaks of “laying in Zion a foundation stone … a precious cornerstone”, (an image the New Testament applies to Jesus).
[10] See “Report of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals,” 17, 22.
[11] See “Report of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals,” 17 (Goal 7), 19–20 (Goals 13 and 14), 21 (Goal 15).
[12] For a brief overview of a Christian approach to the environment, see Hilary Marlow, The Earth is the Lord’s: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues, Grove Biblical Series B50 (Cambridge: Grove Books, 2008). She makes some important points in regards to the creation story in Genesis 1 as well. She refers to White’s argument on pp. 14 (cf. n. 15), 19 (cf. n. 19).
[13] See here James D. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, Christianity in the Making, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003) p. 484 n. 478 who allows that “[t]he possibility that the explanatory addition was ‘authorized’ by Jesus himself should not be excluded.”
[14] See https://www.anglicancommunion.org/mission/marks-of-mission.aspx
[15] James K. Baxter, “Song to the Holy Spirit,” in A New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare O Aotearoa (Auckland/London: Collins, 1989), 157.
[16] See He Waka Eke Noa: Towards a Better Future, Together. New Zealand’s Progress Towards the SGDs–2019, it was put out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/23333New_Zealand_Voluntary_National_Review_2019_Final.pdf
Interestingly, a previous report in September 2005 reporting on the MDGs, was introduced by Winston Peters, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, see http://www.nzaid.govt.nz/library/docs/mdg-report-title.pdf. While the 2019 Voluntary National Review might read in places like a party political document, a careful reading shows that a number of initiatives reported on were undertaken by previous governments, including National-led ones.
[17] See He Waka Eke Noa: “Vector Urban Forest”, 59; “Red Shirts in the Community,” developed with the Ministry of Social Development, 77; “Taranaki Regional Council Riparian Management Programme”, 53.
[18] https://www.sbc.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/127591/ACCSR-State-of-CSR-Report-2017.pdf., 23
[19] ACCSR State of CSR Report 2017, 23.
[20] See, for instance, her introduction to He Waka Eke Noa, 5.
[21] See “A Million Voices,” 46. No highly developed nations held national consultations.
[22] Edward Felsenthal, “Countdown 2030,” Time (February 1/February 8): 2021, 4.
[23] Helen Clark: Speech at High-Level Event on “Building a New Vision to address Long-term and Recurrent Humanitarian Crisis,” 14 July, 2015.
[24] See Abidoye, B., J. Felix, S. Kapto, & L. Patterson, Leaving No One Behind: Impact of COVID-19 on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (New York, NY: United Nations Development Programme and Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures, 2021). https://sdgintegration.undp.org/sites/default/files/Leaving_No_One_Behind,_COVID_impact_on_the_SDGs_second_flagship.pdf.