Why the UN’s Global Goals are so important

You may have heard that this week is a big one for the United Nations as they look to sign off on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), drawn up as a way to give nations and every citizen of the Earth a focus and something to work towards in an effort to improve the planet we all call home.

This video might help you to realise why aiming to achieve those goals is such an important thing for us all to focus on, in any small way they can. It’s also why I firmly believe every world leader should be sent to space to realise the enormous responsibility that rests on their shoulders.

The SDGs have received criticism in some quarters for being too broad and, perhaps, too idealistic. But are they? If you look at them in their simplest form, they are surely something every human being would want to achieve, no matter how long it takes. Many of them are also far more important than the materialistic matters too many governments and leaders tend to focus on in these modern times. In their simplest form they are nothing but nobel, and the best thing is that they offer every one of us a chance to play a role.

Australian Hugh Evans certainly believes in them. This week, he was on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to discuss Global Citizen, an organisation he founded with the aim of ending extreme poverty by the year 2030. Here he is with one of his greatest supporters, actor Hugh Jackman, chatting about his extraordinary initiative.

Evans was the 2004 Young Australian Of The Year and has spent much of his life working towards making the world a better place. He is an outstanding humanitarian, having previously founded the Oaktree Foundation, which he set up in a way to engage and inspire people to work towards ending poverty, and was a leader in the Australian Make Poverty History campaign. He should make every Australian proud, and to be quite honest should receive a lot more coverage at home than he does. His work and ambition are remarkable, and truly inspiring. And it all started when he was aged just 12, as he explains here.

“We don’t want your money,” he says. “We want people to take action.” What a simple, yet unique message. And what a fantastic one at that.

As part of this week’s UN activities, Hugh was an integral part of helping to organise the Global Citizen Festival in New York’s Central Park, including a huge concert that featured the likes of Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Pearl Jam and Beyonce.

The impact of Evans’s work with Global Citizen is quite extraordinary, and a demonstration of what we, as the inhabitants of Earth, can do to improve not only our own lives, but those of our fellow human beings. I strongly urge you all to join, and become a part of a global movement that is so inspiring, it will make you feel amazing.

You’ll just have to trust me on that one.

Become a Global Citizen yourself by signing up here. You can make a difference. Together, we all can.