UNDP China unveils Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Beijing unveiled the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the 2015 Social Good Summit on Wednesday, jointly with partners like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chinese Social Media for Social Good Alliance.

UNDP Deputy Country Director in China Patrick Haverman (R3) and Li Xi (R4) hoist a special UN flag attached to one featuring all the 17 SDGs on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015 in Beijing. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

The SDGs, which contain 17 proposed items, aim to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. The SDGs, expected to be approved by world leaders in the upcoming UN General Assembly scheduled later this month, are a replacement and upgrade of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will expire by the end of this year.

The 2015 Social Good Summit made China the first country among all the 193 UN member states to launch the Global Goals Campaign and promote these 17 new goals. To mark the adoption of the SDGs, the Global Goals campaign strives to tell seven billion people in just seven days.

In a special message for the summit, The UNDP Administrator Helen Clark called the summit "a flagship event for the UNDP."

"We plan to use the Social Good Summit's platform and audience to help governments and partners launch the Sustainable Development Goals to help make the new Global Goals a household name everywhere," she said.

UNDP Country Director in China, Agi Veres, said that the comprehensive list of SDGs are a chance to "leave this world a better place than we found it, and it is our responsibility to work together, making a concerted effort to achieve these global goals starting today."

The Social Good Summit in China is one of more than 100 Social Good Summits organized around the world to raise awareness of the SDGs in September.

With the theme, "New Goals, New Power, New Technology," the Social Good Summit in China brought together big technology giants including Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and YouKu, alongside private sector companies such as Standard Chartered and the Chinese Civil Society Organization to join forces in a bid to make the global goals famous.

The Gates Foundation is one of the initiators of the Chinese Social Media for Social Good Alliance. The deputy director of its China Country Office, Yang Jianyue, said that the foundation is excited to see how its members have broken new ground and united together for the global good.

"Since the establishment in 2011, members of the Alliance have put aside competition and worked closely together to promote social good in China," said Yang at the summit.

UNDP China with its partners cemented the China Global Goals Alliance to help realize this vision with a unique flag hoisting ceremony featuring the iconic UN flag attached to a flag with all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.