The SDG Expert Working Group (EWG) was established in 2019 to continue the work of an Advisory Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, set up in 2018 to focus on (a) making a sector contribution to New Zealand’s Voluntary National Review, and (b) delivering a successful Summit in 2019 or 2020.
The EWG was to:
- oversee a coherent series of SDG Summits, and supporting work, until 2030, when the current UN Agenda for Sustainable Development concludes. The co-ordination of the Summits to date has proved beneficial in generating greater collaboration across the sector and increasing engagement with other sectors.
- explore opportunities to formally include, or collaborate with, representation from the vocational education sector. There was already good informal engagement with some polytechnics and the review of vocational education will make sector-wide collaboration more practical.
Objectives
The EWG's objectives are to:
- articulate a vision of what it hopes to achieve by 2030.
- work collaboratively across the sector to develop and deliver a clear programme of SDG summits through to 2030 to achieve that vision.
- report regularly to Universities New Zealand on progress
- support the running of individual summits
- to develop and execute a research programme to outline NZ universities’ contribution to the SDGs, and to make this available to the New Zealand Government for any of its own reporting on SDG progress.
A website has been established (www.sdgsummits.nz) with links to reports of previous NZ summits in 2018 and 2019, and information about and links to the current Summit series being held in New Zealand.
UN's Agenda 2030
The Agenda 2030—ratified in 2015 at the United Nations (UN)—is an agenda designed to transform our world. It is based on 17 Sustainable Development Goals which, as former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon explained, are a “roadmap to ending global poverty, building a life of dignity for all and leaving no one behind. It is also a clarion call to work in partnership and intensify efforts to share prosperity, empower people’s livelihoods, ensure peace and heal our planet for the benefit of this and future generations.”
The Aotearoa New Zealand Sustainable Development Goals Summits were inspired by people wanting to collaborate across sectors to drive meaningful change for the SDGs.
Working group members
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University of Auckland |
Maria Baldoni |
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AUT |
Lucy McKenzie |
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Waikato University |
Lynda Johnston |
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Massey University |
Allanah Ryan |
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Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington |
Andrew Wilks |
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University of Canterbury |
Matt Morris (Chair) |
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Lincoln University |
Lin Roberts |
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University of Otago |
Ray O'Brien |
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Te Pūkenga |
Ehsan Yaeghoobi |
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Support |
Chloe Sutton | chloe.sutton@canterbury.ac.nz |
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