It is crucial that we leave no one behind. Hence, a "Whole Of Nation Approach" is needed in all our member countries if we want to accelerate progress on the SDGs. I was actively involved in the recent Malaysia SDG Summit 2019 officiated by Hon. Prime Minister Malaysia Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that was co-organised by the United Nations and Ministry of Economic Affairs Malaysia.
Story by Federation President Anusha Santhirasthipam
We have much to do to tackle climate change and prevent natural disasters. We must end hardcore poverty, ensure quality education, affordable healthcare, housing and resilient communities, sustainable agriculture, clean water and sanitation, affordable clean energy, green initiatives, enterprise development and social innovation.
Most crucial is to ensure gender equality and close all gender gaps across ALL 17 sustainable development goals. Sustainability can only happen with equitable growth, inclusiveness and shared prosperity across all ethnic, regional and economic groups.
This proved to be a great platform to promote smart local partnerships and global collaborative pathways to attract social capital funding for our programmes of action. Much more needs to happen if we are to fully develop the capacity of our women and youth, ensure effective social re-engineering and long term wellbeing of our women, youth and children. CSOs must carry out social impact assessments regularly to encourage and retain donor support and project sustainability.
This event amplified the hopes, concerns and challenges faced by women, youth, indigenous, refugees, local community action groups and environmentalists. It reconfirmed the future demand for social enterprises and the prospects to solve socio-economic demands with social impact innovation, capacity building and greater cooperation between NGOs, business leaders and government aid agencies.