Fellow YOUTH CLUB mates, it’s my pleasure to share my participation in the ongoing contest of the Youth Club community dubbed; “Review About the SDGs...”.

Social entrepreneurship is the order of the day today due to the constant awareness campaigns by organizations championing the sustainable development goals. Because of that, everyone have now seen the need to come together in the form of partnerships, collaborations, sponsorships, and donations to work towards the achievement of the sustainable development goals.

In this post I would like to take you through my journey as a social entrepreneur and thus a sustainable development advocate for that matter, while highlighting and discussing each sustainable development goal.

Definition of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development, as defined by a United Nations report, is

“development that meets the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

What does this mean?

This simply means that, do not deny someone else’s ability to meet their needs in the future because of your actions today.
Take for example, you are the sole caretaker of your family. And you have an investment that can potentially pay for the young ones school. But you happen to need a car and this investment is your only source of funds that can buy you a car.

Sustainable development basically seeks to advice you not to use all the funds to buy the car but only a part of it , and leave the remaining part to take care of future of the young ones.

For instance, let’s take sustainable development goal 15: Life on land, this goal seeks to promote all life on the surface of the earth; plants and animals alike. According to sustainable development, we should try as much as possible to refrain from cutting down trees as that can eventually lead to desertification, among many other effects of cutting down trees or deforestation. Rather it is advised and is ideal that we should inculcate the habit of planting trees instead because trees basically keep us alive as they’re our source of oxygen, they also provide stability to the soil(ground/land) to hold it firmly, giving us more yield in our farmlands to feed us and keep us alive.

Sustainable Development Goals

_{Sustainable Development Goals Logo| Source}

_{Sustainable Development Goals | Source}

Brief history of Sustainable Development

The sustainable development goals are a plan of action adopted my all United Nations(UN) member countries, states, institutions and organizations in the year 2015 to provide a roadmap for the alleviation of world crisis caused by the actions of humanity. For example; inequalities, desertification, loss of life under the oceans, among others.

1992

The 17 SDGs started as Agenda 21 where over 178 countries across the world came together to develop a developmental plan that can ensure good environment and an improved human life.

2000

A Millennium Summit concluded on a plan to reduce extreme poverty by the year 2015. The plan was called The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

2002

A World Summit on Sustainable Development concluded on putting priority on the MDGs and the Agenda 21 which place emphasis on protecting the environment and ending extreme poverty.

2012

A UN Conference on Sustainable Development decided on building on the MDGs and termed this new development as the SDGs(Sustainable Development Goals).

2013

The UN General Assembly started developing proposals on the SDGs.

2015

The developments led to the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development; the 17 SDGs as the basis.

History Source

A couple of countries/states agreed and also contributed and championed some of the goals.
Now a forum is held each year to review the progress of the sustainable development goals.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (the 17 SDGs)

The 17 sustainable development goals are the key blueprint to achieving a Sustainable Development. They are as follows;

Sustainable Development Goal 1

_{SDG 1 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 1?

• Governments can develop small business support programs to provide funds for rural inhabitants to start small businesses to support their families.
• Governments can also subsidize the cost of starting or running a business to enable more people into businesses in order to support their families contributing to poverty alleviation.
• Rural communities that can go into farming should have their farm inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and any other materials they would be need in the farms subsidized for them.
• Livestock or animal farmers (livestock, poultry, fish, etc) should have their feed also subsidized for them.

This will enable more people to venture into these industries which will be providing good livelihood to these groups of people and ultimately ensuring No Poverty.

Sustainable Development Goal 2

_{SDG 2 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 2?

There is one fascinating thing about the sustainable development goals, they build on one another. When you’re are working on achieving one goal you’re also indirectly achieving another goal.
SDG 1 and SDG 2 are a classic example of the interdependence of the sustainable development goals. As you work on erasicating poverty (SDG 1), you are also indirectly providing food for everyone (SDG 2).

Sustainable Development Goal 3

_{SDG 3 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 3?

World AIDS Day, Breast Cancer Awareness campaigns, immunization programs and exercises, among others are the developments towards achieving this goal. Championing this goal is the World Health Organization (W. H. O).
There have been preventive measures adopted to fight against a number of diseases by organizations. Distribution of treated mosquito nets to fight against malaria and other diseases spread by mosquitoes, by the Ministry Of Health - Ghana Health Servicefor example.
These and many others are measures adopted by organizations and governments to ensure sustainable development goal 3 is achieved. And it’s a good way to go.

Sustainable Development Goal 4

_{SDG 4 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 4?

Quality Education; Goal 4 seeks to promote quality circular education for all people in all walks of life without boundaries of disability, economic status, religion, geographical location , etc.
This goal can be achieved by making institutions affordable enough for everyone. Also the development of educational support programs such as scholarships, sponsorships, etc goes a long way to ensuring that even the lowest people on the social ladder gets access to quality education.

Sustainable Development Goal 5

_{SDG 5 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 5?

Gender Equality as the sustainable development goal 5 ensures that equal opportunities are given to all sexes without prejudice to the sexual orientation of a person.
Goal 5 can be achieved by developing systems to motivate and ensure all gender participation in decision making processes and giving representation to all gender at the top management in an organization or society.

Sustainable Development Goal 6

_{SDG 6 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 6?

Clean Water and Sanitation as a goal can be achieved by responsibly using our water bodies and promoting good personal hygiene among ourselves.
For example it is a responsible use of our water bodies to stop illegal mining activities in them.
Also if each person should practice good personal hygiene everyone would make sure that their surroundings are clean and that would lead to sanitation in our environment.

Sustainable Development Goal 7

_{SDG 7 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 7?

Solar energy and the wind are clean sources of energy. This goal seeks to draw our attention from the “unclean” sources of energy we use such as all smoke emitting fuels. This challenges us to source better, environmental friendly and sustainable alternatives of energy.

Sustainable Development Goal 8

_{SDG 8 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 8?

Ensure sustained economic growth for all; provide employment and ensure decent work of employees.
Economic growth ensures that people who are really in need and make sure they’re provided jobs.
Decent work ensures favorable work conditions for these people at the employment posts.

Sustainable Development Goal 9

_{SDG 9 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 9?

Ensure innovation in new infrastructural developments and adopt and adapt to the use of sustainable materials. Be innovative and substitute traditional building materials that are not sustainable for more sustainable and environmentally friendly ones.

Sustainable Development Goal 10

_{SDG 10 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 10?

Overlook inter-national differences to ensure sustainable trade and economic development across nations. Ensure harmony among different groups of people.

Sustainable Development Goal 11

_{SDG 11 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 11?

Promote intercultural relationships and coexistence. Ensure an inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable living environment for all people in all places. This promotes harmonious living and attracts development in all safe places.

Sustainable Development Goal 12

_{SDG 12 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 12?

This goal seeks to create awareness on how we produce and consume our products. Take Shea Nut 🌰 for example; after harvesting the Shea fruits from the tree and eating the fruit, the by product of the shea fruit i.e shea nut, has numerous uses among some of which are;

• can be used to produce Shea Butter 🧈
• can be used to produce Shea Soap
• can be used to produce Shea Sanitizer
• waste from the production of the Shea Butter can be used to produce soles of shoes and/or sandals.

Responsible production and consumption ensures recycling ♻️ of by products of our consumption. It also ensures good use of our resources.

Sustainable Development Goal 13

_{SDG 13 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 13?

Climate action seeks to draw our attention to protecting our planet. We can achieve this by cutting down on our carbon emissions and also planting more trees to absorb the carbon that’s already in circulation.
Using renewable power, public transportation, and switching to a vegan diet are good measures that can help reduces the amount of carbon that’s in the atmosphere. This will ultimately promote longer human lifespan as there will cleaner air to breath, among others.

Sustainable Development Goal 14

_{SDG 14 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 14?

By giving better treatment to our water bodies; stop dumping all forms of refuse into the water bodies. Ensure responsible extraction of natural resources such as oil from the water bodies. Oil spillage in the water bodies renders the life under the water dead. This goal seeks to ultimately preserve and conserve the life under our water bodies.

Sustainable Development Goal 15

_{SDG 15 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 15?

This goal places emphasis in the conservation and preservation of all life on the earth surface (the terrestrial ecosystem) ie plants and animals alike.
Human activities such as deforestation is frowned upon while planting of more trees(afforestation) is encouraged to help ensure a sustainable development. Not only trees but animals life too need be conserved under the SDG 15.
This goal can be achieved by enforcing protection laws on forest reserves and wildlife, among others.

Sustainable Development Goal 16

_{SDG 16 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 16?

Ensure peaceful coexistence among one another on all basis of race, creed, gender, sex, religion, political affiliation, economic status among other.
Enforce authority on institutions to handle disputes, conflicts, and ensure justice among different groups of people.

Sustainable Development Goal 17

_{SDG 17 | Source}

How can we achieve SDG 17?

The goal 17 is the proposed solution to all the other sustainable development goals. It proposes that we all come together in unison; continents, states/countries, governments, institutions/organizations, youth, entrepreneurs, and all other stakeholders to put our resources together to ensure development that is sustainable.
As the saying goes “team work makes the dream work.” Our dream are far better realized if we work together in achieving them. Also, “the more the merrier”.

Live No One Behind. - _{Slogan for the Sustainable Development Goals.}

Sustainable Development has be adopted by many governments as part of their roadmap to achieving the nation’s development goals.
I say to these nations, “WAY TO GO!!! 🔥”

I would like to extend my thanks to @ponpase for sponsoring this wonderful contest and to all the @youthclub admins and moderators and supervisors for creating this wonderful community on steemit platform to promote sustainable development and others.
Thank you so much:
@ponpase
@pojan
@muhajir169
@teukumuhas