Goal 17 is truly the most important goal. Yet, I bet it never really crossed your mind...
SDG 17 is all about collaboration, as a group, as a community and as a species. There is a varied spectrum of which SDG 17 works, from small changes you make as individual, to large scale international organization such as the United Nations itself. But what are some key things you should know about the aid that is going on all around us?
International Aid
Separate to charities are "government to government aid". The largest receivers of international aid in 2019 were Latin America and the Caribbean ($7.6 billion) whilst Southern Asia received the least ($5 billion). The DAC (development assistance committee) organizes how and where its members (same as the OECD) will distribute their aid so that they have the largest impact possible. The five largest donor nations for international aid are:
China ($38 billion / 0.36% of their GNI)
The United States of America ( $34.73 billion / 0.18% of their GNI)
Germany ($25.01 billion / 0.67% of their GNI)
United Kingdom ($18.10 billion / 0.70% of their GNI)
Japan (10.4 billion / 0.21% of their GNI)
Under the targets of SDG 17, the UN asks each developed nation to donate 0.7% of their GNI to foreign aid. Very few nations have completed their targets for foreign aid, but notably Argentina, South Africa, Croatia and the UAE have all met these targets.
It is critical we encourage collaboration and put pressure on our governments to meet these targets to ensure a proper way of living for everyone.
WHAT IS PROPER COLLABORATION?
We depend on SDG 17, on collaboration, to see improvements in each of the other goals. But the problem stands that we struggle to work because of issues such racism, sexism, self-protectionism and struggles over working between different generations.
So the problem exists, that aid and collaboration often requires sacrifice of time or money etc... What we need to do is to create less sacrifice and by working as larger groups, as communities and as nations, we lower the sacrifice on each individual state or person which is why we promote group work so much.
This video talks about different specific methods of collaboration we use throughout the world and what we know about working together on this large a scale.
What Can I Do?
You don't always have to be working for a charity often we just need to support them in some way to make a sort of contribution. At the International School of Toulouse we have several groups you can support:
Our UNICEF team have raised a significant amount of money over the years. They managed to raise over €1000 in last year alone! By supporting walks, cake sales and events such as the US & THEM concert you are joining in with the community to make an effort. The money raised by the IST UNICEF team is then transferred to the greater UNICEF project which is then used accordingly.
Any profit our FairTrade team makes after cake sales or refreshment stands is donated to a different charity each academic year. Last year they supported la Pharmacie Humanitaire Internationale which helped provide drinking water to a community in Kenya. And this year they are supporting the Red Cross!
Outside of school they're are also plenty of options. Often leisure clubs support charities, in Toulouse there are clubs such as TMA31, an English-speaking amateur dramatics group who provide an experience to be in musical productions whilst also donating to a charity. At their recent 20th Anniversary performance they revealed what they had done - they had funded the construction of a girls school for performing arts which to this day is giving young girls the opportunity to explore creativity and enjoy it! Groups like TMA31 prove that you can learn skills, meet people and have an impact somewhere in the world all at once.
From all of this, it is important to understand the worth of the small actions you make. That euro you spend, the extra change you give or even the occasional hour of service work you do has an impact somewhere in the world. The difference you make as an individual, the difference we make as a community and the difference we make as a nation will affect the entire world because small efforts can have a big impact!
Great article and quite eye opening in terms of aid from countries. I wonder how much france donates? I like that we have reason to be positive when we see what can be achieved by working together.