14 Moonshots for 2023 to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Last August, we asked 70+ of the world's leading change agents "How would you spend $500 million to achieve the SDGs?" Here's what they told us.

Dear Unlock Aid community,

How would you spend $500 million?

That’s the question we asked last August, when over 70 of the world's leading change agents from more than 25 countries joined Unlock Aid and the Day One Project in Mexico City to explore new ways of solving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Too often, discussions about how to achieve the SDGs center on how much money we need to spend. In these moonshots, innovators who are already solving these problems explain how we can spend existing money better, including by scaling up proven solutions to some of the planet's hardest problems, such as increasing access to clean water, preserving biodiversity, advancing reproductive health, and eliminating global poverty.

Today, we’re proud to publish 14 moonshots – big, audacious ways to achieve the SDGs – along with profiles of the innovators behind them. See them here.

The stunning illustrations to depict each moonshot were created by Manuella Bonomi. Visit www.manuellabonomi.com.

Innovators say we can:

1. Provide universal access to menstrual products for every person who needs it

2. Build safe, healthy homes for millions in ways that cut costs and carbon emissions

3. Save millions of lives by making oxygen a public utility

4. Provide billions of people with access to clean water through rainwater harvesting

5. Build safe communities by rehabilitating at-risk youth

6. Ensure every malnourished child gets the treatment they need

7. Digitize community health systems to achieve universal health coverage

8. Reverse biodiversity loss in Latin America by changing our relationship with nature

9. Feed billions of people by equipping smallholder farmers with digital tools

10. Revitalize economies and solve unemployment by preparing young people for the green economy  

11. Expand universal access to healthcare through digital pharmacies

12. Combat global food insecurity by mapping the plant genome

13. Make medicines more affordable by changing how we pay for health products 

14. Transition global development funding from aid to trade in Africa

We’re in a consequential decade. The decisions we make today will determine whether we can adapt to a changed climate, beat the next global health emergency, and show the world that democracies can deliver.

We’ve seen our public institutions do hard things before. In 1961, President Kennedy challenged the United States to put a man on the moon by the end of that decade. NASA rose to the occasion and successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon ahead of schedule, in 1969. Now we need our public institutions to deliver again to solve the SDGs.

Each of these 14 moonshots shed light on the ways in which businesses and organizations – in partnership with the world’s largest public institutions – can rapidly accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs and meet climate targets by 2030. 

The innovators and their moonshots have inspired us. We hope they inspire you.

Have a wonderful holiday season from everyone at Unlock Aid. We look forward to doing hard things together in the New Year. 

To progress,

Amanda Arch & the Unlock Aid Coalition

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