Using what you have for what others don’t

Sustainable Development: Part 2

I spent a lot of my life not really caring about development and justice. Well, if you had asked me if I cared, I definitely would have said yes, before turning my attention back to something that I actually cared about, actively cared about. I gave money to different causes, prayed for people in trouble, skimmed news articles about disasters and poverty and suffering. But when it came down to it, I was in another world, a world so far removed that I could see no part for me to play in it.

One of the things that I have realised over the last year or so, I find a little hard to explain, but I think it comes down to keeping our distance; we care in a very detached way. We do the good things, with good intentions, but we don’t let it affect our lives, our thoughts, our plans. What if, as a first step, we engaged with what was going on out there? If we saw it less as ‘out there’ and more as within the world that we all live in. I think that engagement is the first step to action, because I don’t think that each of us can or should be involved in the same action, so to learn our part in the issues, we have to engage with the issues. I’m learning, more and more, that solutions to hunger, poverty, injustice do not fit neatly into boxes. If they did, a lot of problems would have been solved already. As it is, solutions are much more complicated.

International development is at a bit of a crossroads. So much has been tried and has ultimately failed. More than 3 billion people still live on less than $2.50 a day. 31 million girls worldwide are still not getting a primary education. There were still 35 million people living with HIV in 2013. There has been progress, there have been some efforts that have worked in the short term, there is hope, but for this hope to be realised, for lasting solutions to come, we need new ideas,new passion and new innovation.

The first step in this is for people to become engaged.

In every engaged person is the potential to be an

idea producer a problem solver a hand holder

a plan designer a disease healer a creative thinker

a passionate leader an articulate writer a dedicated carer

a life breather a list maker an opportunity grabber

a product inventor a head lifter a heart mender

a vision seer a mission doer a people stirrer

What are you?

And maybe you’re the only 'mission doer' in a sea of 'vision seers' and maybe that makes you feel isolated, unsure of the part you can play, afraid that you have no part. Maybe you’re a plan designer and can’t see that you’re surr​ounded by problem solvers, but if you could, maybe that would give you the courage, the push to tell them your plans, which could be what they’re waiting for. If each person becomes passionate about even one of the sustainable development goals, if each person realises there can be a part for them to play, the potential is enormous.

#sustainabledevelopmentgoals #SDGs