Help us transform our public institutions to achieve the SDGs
Everyone knows we need new approaches to achieve the SDGs by 2030. We need a transformational plan to get on track. We need your help to write it.
Dear Unlock Aid community,
We need you to join us this fall for one in a series of listening roundtables to discuss what’s needed to transform our public institutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, starting with reshaping the United States’ approach as the world’s largest SDGs funder.
Here’s why this matters:
Everyone knows we’re dangerously behind meeting the SDGs by 2030. The wildfires in Hawaii are just the latest reminder the climate crisis is here, it’s getting worse by the day, and this makes the SDGs even more difficult to achieve.
World leaders agree the post-World War II international systems built to confront global challenges cannot keep up with the litany of interconnected challenges we face.
Every year, the international community spends approximately $200 billion in official development assistance to achieve the SDGs. The United States is the world’s largest bilateral funder, spending more than $55 billion last year.
But more money alone won’t be enough to confront the scale of the challenges ahead. Constrained by regulations and business practices established decades ago, public institutions optimize for compliance over results, do not operate with the agility or the speed we need, and do not fund those organizations and communities that are best positioned to have a long lasting, sustainable impact.
We need to see big changes regarding who sets global development funding priorities and how resources go out the door.
Everything needs to be on the table — from taking on the minutiae of procurement reform to accelerating the shift in resources to local, Indigenous, and frontline communities. We need to scale funding for the most effective, proven solutions in global development and take more big bets. It’s time to revisit the purpose, operational capacity, and mission statements of the world’s largest global development funders.
That’s why, this fall, we’re hosting a series of listening roundtables, set to kick off on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly and the 2023 SDG Summit in New York City. We’ll also meet on the margins of SOCAP in San Francisco, COP28 in Dubai, as well as virtually and in other cities around the world, including in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
We’re interested in collecting your insights on how, together, we can transform our public institutions to achieve the SDGs by 2030, starting with reshaping the United States’ approach.
We’ll be asking participants, “If we got to start over, what would we do differently? How would we redesign our public institutions to achieve the SDGs by 2030?”
We’ll integrate your ideas into a final proposal later this year, which we’ll share with U.S. lawmakers and policymakers who are ready to take action, including those participating in the UN 2024 Summit of the Future.
Want to join us? Click here to signal your interest to be part of these discussions. We can achieve the SDGs by 2030 if we take action now. We look forward to building the future with you.
To progress,
Unlock Aid