After months of waiting and trying to imagine how this new experience would be, the first day has arrived. Why did we choose to study Sustainable Development? As the 2030 Agenda is a ‘collective journey’, action towards reaching the SDGs is a mutual obligation.
The new academic year has just started and with it a new experience for each of us – new students of the LL.M. The first class on the 24th of September has been Sociology, with Professor Luigi Cominelli. After an introduction to the course in general, each student was asked to present him-/herself, and to tell the class where he/she comes from and what he/she has studied before. But not only. The last question was: “Why did you choose this program?”.
One may think it is easy to answer to such question, In fact, it is not: only a few words and little time allocated to formulating an answer is probably not enough to express real motivations behind such a choice. Because of that, even after speaking, everyone should ask again to him-/herself: “Why did you choose this programme?”. Undoubtedly, the first reason behind it, is believing in Sustainable Development.
Sustainable Development has been defined as “the development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”(1). In other words, it aims at finding a balance between the satisfaction of current needs and growth and the impact current actions may have in future.
For too long, humans reasoned based on a short-term perspective; but nowadays, something seems to have started changing. New projects are emerging all over the world, such as on waste reduction, renewable energy and recycling, and more and more people are changing their lifestyles. An article on the Financial Times for instance, reports on how, in the past years, young people have become more conscious about their consumer habits. According to the article, younger consumers have a preference for ethical products, which range from the food and drink market to the body-care products’ market. In addition, they have the aspiration to work for companies that engage in sustainable and ethical matters.
At the same time, the World Bank shows education is spreading, with school enrollment increasing over the years, while poverty diminishes: poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 dollar a day is four times as low as it was in the 1980s.
The actions undertaken and the data showed underline trade offs between actual needs and the environmental, social and economic challenges and limits that a society faces, is possible. And even if the complete recovery of the damages already done is not achievable, a new road can be found.
However, there is still a lot to do: a large share of the world population is still fighting hunger, with seizable differences between rich and poor households, and between boys and girls. In the meantime, natural resources are depleting and climate change is affecting more and more countries and people: according to the Global Footprint Network (GFN), “86% of countries are currently living beyond their means” and in 2018 humans have exhausted natural resources for the entire year on August 1.
On the other hand, most of the people are still unaware of what Sustainable Development is, and think that their way of life is the only one possible: as a document of the OECD Development Communication Network suggests, “across 24 countries, only around 1 in 100 citizens know the SDGs very well, while 25% say they know the name only”. At the European level, “only 1 in 10 Europeans know what the SDGs are”. In other words, even if awareness is increasing, a huge knowledge gap persists.
This constitutes an additional and strong motivation to choose the Sustainable Development programme. The curriculum offered contributes, through a comprehensive approach, to address current issues from both the economic, social, as well as environmental perspectives. Moreover, it gives the opportunity to focus on various aspects of Sustainable Development, and to combine theory with practice, through workshops and internships.
Consequently, as a student, one expect to raise his/her own awareness on the complexity of Sustainable Development’s multiple aspects, to acquire necessary instruments to contribute to tackling contemporary issues, and to make a change.The 2030 Agenda is “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity” made for taking “the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path”(2). Action has to be undertaken by as many people as possible across the world. For this reason, the fact that this Programme is so international is also important, as the Agenda is “accepted by all countries and is applicable to all, taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities”.
n few words, the Agenda is “a collective journey”, which is demanding, innovative and ambitious: the programme can be the instrument to become an active part of the journey, and for us to contribute to this change.
Photo credits: Sailko
(1) Our Common Future, also called Brundtland report, publication released in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED).
(2) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, during the Seventieth session. A/RES/70/1: Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
