
Sustainable Development Goals
The “17 Sustainable Development Goals” came into force on January 1, 2016 with the aim of ensuring sustainable development at an economic, social and ecological level worldwide.
These 17 political objectives (+ 169 sub-goals) of the United Nations are to be implemented by 2030.
In German-speaking countries, these are also known as the “Agenda 2030”.
What we do

#exhibition
The largest lesson of the world
All around us are warnings that could not be clearer! Bees and butterflies are dying out… Glaciers are melting and algae are blooming… People are dying from the consequences of obesity while countless others are starving… Climate change, wars, waves of refugees – all around us are warnings that could not be any clearer! The UN’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development should also shake us people from civil society awake so that the next generations will also find a planet worth living on! But to achieve this, you first have to understand these 17 goals, which are subordinated to 169 additional sub-goals!
The Youth Ambassadors for UN Children’s Rights & SDGs have set themselves the task of raising awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals in a variety of ways. A major appeal is made to their own and the next generation in particular.
The contents of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are presented and explained in a versatile and visually appealing way using 10 cuboids (1x1x2m).

#workshop
SDG workshop
Our workshop “The laziest sock is part of the solution” brings the sustainability goals closer in a simple and understandable way. Appropriate materials are used depending on the age of the participants. Basic terms in connection with the SDGs, such as “sustainability” or “UN”, are clarified and the connection between economy, ecology and social issues is discussed. In the end, it is important to recognize that EVERYONE can and MUST contribute to successful implementation and that we can only make the world a better place together.
17 Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 1 – No poverty
Poverty should have no place in our world.
Many people in the world are poor. They cannot afford food or education for their children. Anyone with less than 1.60 euros a day is considered “extremely poor”. In many parts of the world, people are in this poverty and have to go hungry or are ill. South of the Sahara desert in Africa, one in three people are affected.
In Austria, nobody has to die because of hunger. Those who need help receive it from the state. However, some people cannot afford expensive things like vacations or fancy clothes. This is called “relative” poverty. It is not uncommon for very poor people to live next door to very rich people. They are often sad because they feel excluded from others.

SDG 2 – Zero Hunger
No one in the world should have to go hungry.
Everyone has the right to a healthy diet.
795 million people worldwide suffer from hunger. That is almost every 9th person. Approximately every 10 seconds a child dies as a result of hunger. There are many reasons for hunger and poor nutrition. Natural disasters such as floods and drought can trigger hunger crises because they destroy fields and animals. Climate change is making even more soils infertile. Plants and vegetables grow poorly there and animals find nothing to eat. Wars prevent people from being supplied with food. If people cannot find work, they flee to other countries. This makes the situation of these poor people even worse.

SDG 3 – Good health and well-being
Everyone should be able to lead a healthy life. Everyone should be able to go to the doctor and get medicine.
In poor countries, people often fall ill from contaminated water. But there are hardly any doctors and hospitals in these countries. There is a lack of equipment for examinations and medication. Around 4,100 infants die every day because there is no clean drinking water and too few toilets. We have vaccinations for children against diseases. This is not the case in many parts of the world, even though vaccination can save lives!
That is why the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child demands that every child has the right to live. Governments must do everything possible to ensure the survival of children (Article 6). And the “right to health and development” (Article 24).

SDG 4 – Quality education
PROCS – Education for street children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ananas Girmai founded the PROCS street children project in 2001.
PROCS stands for “Protection, Respect & Opportunity for Children on the Street” and aims to prevent children in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, from having to grow up on the streets. This is because many parents from the slums in Addis Ababa – most of whom are single or sick – are unable to provide their children with sufficient food and school materials, a good place to sleep or medical care. Their children then bear this burden as they try to support their families through child labor. PROCS is there to help precisely these children. Children who have no dreams, who have been deprived of their rights and education and who are exposed to physical, emotional and, unfortunately, a great deal of sexual violence every day. The PROCS team acts quickly and wants to tell the children above all: “You are a child. You can play and dream like a child. We will protect you and you can pour your heart out!”
Many children now come to the drop-in center of their own accord, a well-sheltered environment that allows them to keep up at school and study at a desk. They receive hot meals, can take a shower every week and get good advice when they need it. Systematic efforts are made to give the children a feeling of security through play, seminars and personal conversations.
All this attention also helps these children to discover their potential and achieve their heartfelt goals, which each and every one of them carries within them. Many former street children have now learned professions, are attending medical schools and have even received international scholarships in the USA and Europe!This all goes to show that the system at PROCS works, even if for Ananas it sometimes feels like she is trying to scoop water out of the ocean with a spoon….
But when she sees the children graduating from university, she knows for sure: “Every single life counts – and it’s worth continuing to fight so that they have prospects for a better future that they can’t get in their natural environment!”
PROCS is a brilliant example where SDG 1 “No poverty”, SDG 2 “No hunger” and SDG 3 “Good health and well-being” are fulfilled by SDG 4 “Quality education”.
Ananas Girmai has not only become a wonderful friend.She is a great partner for achieving the global goals (SDG 17)!
Through her and our cooperation with her youth ambassadors, we gain many authentic insights into the lives of children whose starting conditions for life are much more difficult.
This is why the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child demands that every child has the right to live. Governments must do everything in their power to ensure children’s survival (Article 6) and to guarantee the “right to health and development” (Article 24).

SDG 5 – Gender equality
Hello, here you can find more information about the following stories:
- Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl
- International Women’s Day
- Equal Pay Day 2020
Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl
“I am Malala” was written by Malala Yousafzai with the help of Christina Lamb.
Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997 in Mingora, Pakistan. She was born in a country where girls are denied the right to education and boys are valued more.
But even before Malala was born, her father Ziauddin founded a school for girls, as he also fights for women’s rights. When Malala was able to go to school, she was very hard-working and got good grades. She knew that without an education, girls in Pakistan had no chance of getting a good job. Her father encouraged her and was her biggest supporter in the fight for the right to education and gender equality.
When the Taliban came to the Swat Valley and announced their rules, life became difficult for Malala. Everyone was supposed to live according to Muslim law. When Malala was ten years old, the Taliban forbade people to listen to music, watch movies and dance. They demanded all their electronic devices – such as televisions and computers – from the people. They destroyed and burned them in public places. Girls were only allowed to leave the house wearing a veil and accompanied by a man and were no longer allowed to attend school. Those who did not abide by this had to expect severe punishments.
Malala continued to go to school anyway. One day, a journalist from the UK came to Malala’s father. He asked him if he knew any children who wanted to write about their lives under the Taliban in an online diary. Malala’s father suggested his daughter. Her internet diary was called “Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl”. In it, the then eleven-year-old wrote about the radical Islamic Taliban and demanded that girls should also be allowed to attend school. In January 2009, she wrote: “On the way home, I heard a man say: I will kill you.” With these diary entries, which were read all over the world, she made an enemy of the Taliban. After the fall of the Islamists in Pakistan, Malala and the other girls were finally able to go back to school. However, there were still repeated attacks and suicide bombings. On October 9, 2012, Malala was riding home with her friends on a school bus. Suddenly the bus was stopped by two men with guns.
They got on and asked who Malala was. One of the men shot her through the left side of her head and two other girls were injured in the hand.
Malala was immediately taken to hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery and fought for her life.
She later received further treatment in the UK.Miraculously, she escaped blindness in her left eye, paralysis of the left side of her head and deafness in her left ear.She got better at the beginning of 2013 and was discharged from hospital.The Swat Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.They said that the attack was a punishment for Malala’s criticism of the Taliban.The fate of the Pakistani girl has shaken up the world.She received thousands of gifts at the hospital, and school classes from all over the world wrote letters to the young Pakistani girl and encouraged her. On December 10, 2014, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo together with Kailash Satyarthi.Malala currently lives and studies with her family in Birmingham.Despite this terrible attack, Malala is now campaigning even more for the rights of young people, especially girls.
Malala: Knowledge and education are our strongest weapons: “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”
International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day has been celebrated on March 8 since 1911. Even though the role of women in society has changed a lot over the last few centuries, the day is used to draw attention to existing global problems.
Until 1958, women were not allowed to open their own bank account in Austria without their husband’s consent. Until 1977, women were not allowed to work without his permission.
It was a long road for women to fight for the rights they have today.
These are “not special rights, but human rights” – Clara Zetkin demanded for women in 1910. She was a socialist-communist German politician, peace activist and women’s rights campaigner.
In her work for the International, she is considered a formative initiator of International Women’s Day.
The fight for more women’s rights is still not over in 2020
International Women’s Day addresses a wide range of issues. In 2003, for example, there was a call for better education for girls, while in 2004 the focus was on strengthening women’s rights in Nepal. Internationally, the focus is currently also on eliminating oppression and violence against women and girls. This form is one of the most widespread and systematically committed human rights violations. These include: honor killings, female genital mutilation, forced marriage and trafficking in women.
Flower of socialism
In the 19th century, red carnations became a symbol of the working class. At demonstrations for more women’s rights, participants wore red carnations on their lapels as a sign of solidarity and belonging.
The demonstrators chose precisely this cut flower because it is closely associated with socialism. And the women were able to combine this political ideology with their demands for equal rights.

SDG 6 – Clean water and sanitation
Everyone should have clean drinking water and functioning toilets. In addition, everyone should have the right to wash themselves.
Here in Austria, we have good, clean drinking water straight from the tap.
In many other places, water has to be drawn directly from rivers or distant wells. It is often contaminated and contains dangerous bacteria that can lead to serious illnesses. Every year, many people – especially young children – die from diarrhea.
Every third person in the world does not have a proper toilet and is unable to wash themselves adequately. And this despite the fact that human rights state:
“Everyone has the right to clean water!”
This is why the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child demands that every child has the right to live. Governments must do everything possible to ensure the survival of children (Article 6). And that “The right to health and development” (Article 24) is guaranteed.

SDG 7 – Affordable and clean energy
Everyone should have access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy.
To generate electricity, we burn “fossil fuels” such as coal, oil or natural gas in large power plants. Producing electricity in this way makes climate change worse because it produces more CO2 (carbon gas). The radioactive waste from nuclear power plants poses an additional threat to us humans and the environment because its deadly radiation will persist for many hundreds of years into the future.
More and more countries are turning to “renewable energies” and generating electricity with wind turbines, hydropower or solar cells. This does not produce any CO2 or dangerous radiation and these energies will always exist. In addition, the heat deep in the earth (geothermal energy) can be used.

SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth
Everyone should have a job they can live on.
Many people only look for the cheapest possible price when shopping. So that they can buy things cheaply, the stores also have to produce their goods more cheaply. This is why clothing, for example, is often produced in countries where people earn little money for their work. They have to work 14 to 16 hours a day. The wages are still barely enough to survive. There is often too little safety in the factories. There is a lack of protective clothing and gloves for dangerous work – such as working with toxic chemicals. Adults and children often fall ill as a result of their work. This must not be allowed to happen! Children must be protected. They should stay healthy and be able to attend school.

SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Factories should be environmentally friendly and sustainable. People should have all the buildings, roads and places (infrastructure) they need for a good life.
Imagine having to walk two hours to school or having no roads, cars or buses to get to a hospital quickly in the event of an accident? Many people also have to make do without electricity, internet or clean water and no one collects the garbage. That is why it is particularly important that the factories and facilities in a village or town make life better: for example, more buses instead of lots of cars that pollute the air. The situation can be improved with clever and new ideas. This is also known as “innovation”.

SDG 10 – Reduced inequalities
All people in all countries should have the same opportunities.
This does not mean that we all have to look the same. It doesn’t matter where people come from, what color their skin is or whether they have a disability: Everyone is who they are and that’s a good thing. However, there are still too many differences between people and between countries. Some people and countries are doing very well – other people and countries are doing badly. That has to change!
Everyone should be equally well off. No one should live worse than other people. No country should be worse off than other countries. That is why the rich countries should also help the poorer ones to solve problems and become equal.

SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities
We want cities and settlements in which everyone lives well, safely and sustainably.
More and more people are living in cities. Cities should be built in such a way that there are parks and playgrounds. There should be buses and trains that take everyone safely to work and back home again. There should be buildings without steps and stairs so that wheelchairs, baby carriages and older people can get in and out easily. Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere: bad air in the city (smog), houses that could collapse, burglaries and robberies… There is still a lot to do and things need to change quickly. An apartment or a house is important for a safe life. We need parks with clean air for recreation and places to meet friends.

SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production
We want cities and settlements in which everyone lives well, safely and sustainably.
The earth is about to be completely littered.
Humanity currently produces more than 3.5 million tons of waste every day. More than six million tons a day are expected by 2025. Some landfills, for example in China, Korea, Brazil and Mexico, receive more than 10,000 tons of waste every day. Researchers warn that the impact on the planet is already immense, as shown by the huge swirls of waste in the oceans.
Industrialized countries produce the most waste
Industrialized countries in Europe and North America currently produce the most waste. Experts expect the daily amount of waste to peak here around 2050.
But there are already role models
The Californian city of San Francisco wants to reduce its waste to zero by 2020. An ambitious plan, but the city has decided to make waste disposal a priority. Waste separation has been mandatory since 2009, garbage cans are fitted with microchips, taxes are levied on non-recyclable waste and plastic bags are banned. San Francisco has declared war on waste.
Waste volumes are growing, especially in East Asia
For the year 2025, more than six million tons of solid waste are expected daily – enough to fill a 5,000-kilometre-long line of garbage trucks.
The volume of waste always grows particularly strongly where economic growth is high – currently in East Asia, for example, especially in China.
According to forecasts, the South Asian economy, especially India’s, will grow more strongly around 2025.
The same is expected for sub-Saharan Africa by 2050. The development in Africa is decisive for how high the peak in global waste production will be and when it will be reached, the scientists write.
Japan is exemplary in dealing with waste
A positive example alongside San Francisco is the Japanese city of Kawasaki, where industrial processes have been improved to such an extent that 565,000 tons of waste are avoided every year. The authors write that Japan can be a role model when it comes to dealing with waste. According to the study, the average Japanese produces a third less waste than the average American – with a similarly high gross domestic product.




