Anglican Alliance sign Civil Society letter asking for equality to be at the core of next development goals

<p “p1”>Over 3000 organisations globally are represented, with 270 organisations signing the letter and asking for equity to be at the heart of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), the next set of development goals. <p “p1”>Civil society organisations are urging explicit reference to the criteria that ‘no target be considered met unless met for all social and economic groups’ in Ban-ki Moon’s soon-to-be released Synthesis Report. <p “p1”>The letter says: <div “page” title=”Page 1″> <div “section”> <div “layoutArea”> <div “column”> <p “text-align: center;”>Inequalities are not an inevitable outcome of development progress. If we are to recognize the truly transformative potential of the new sustainable development framework we must embed equity at its core. <p “text-align: center;”>No one must be left behind by virtue of their gender, age, disability, income, geography or ethnicity. <p “text-align: center;”>We, the undersigned organizations, urge the United Nations Secretary General to include an explicit commitment in his Synthesis Report on the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda that no target should be considered met unless it is met for all social and economic groups.  <p “text-align: center;”>The full text along with its signatories can be seen here.  <p “p1”>Campaign coordinator Anoshe Waheed from Save the Children said, “From gender CBOs in rural Ghana to international environmental charities, global coalitions, disability rights organisations in Nepal and household name development NGOs, the signatories to this statement demonstrate that civil society is collectively committed to ensuring that equity is embedded at the core of the new sustainable development framework.” <p “p1”>The statement will be shared with UN Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon; Thomas Gass, Head of UNDESA and co-author of the Synthesis Report; Amina Mohamed, Special Advisor on the Post 2015 Framework and co-author of the Synthesis Report; and influencers to the Secretary-General including Jan Eliasson and Bob Orr. <p “p2”>Anoshe Waheed continued, “This has been a truly collective effort and we […] hope that our shared effort results in a commitment to genuinely leave no one behind.” <p “p2”>For more on the Sustainable Development Goals please see https://anglicanalliance.org/advocacy/sustainable-development-goals/