2016: For a Better World
Video feature
For a better world
Programming for I-Week 2016 focused on the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 17 ambitious goals that aim to "eliminate extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and fix climate change" by 2030.[1] See all 17 goals and their targets here.
I-Week events addressed how to start implementing these goals on a local and global level - addressing poverty in developed and developing countries, building sustainable cities and communities, and reducing inequalities (to name a few).
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[1] Taken from: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/summit/
Featured Keynotes:
• Mark and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children; WE Day youth empowerment event; and ME to WE social enterprises; lifelong activists and social entrepreneurs.
• Marian Nemat, human rights advocate, author, and multiple award winner: Human Dignity Award (European Parilament) and Morris Abram Human Rights Award (UN Watch).
• Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit advocate, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Canadian President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (1995 -2002), and award winning author.
• University of Alberta Panelists on "ISIS and the Syrian Refugee Crisis: Canada's Response": Dr. Yasmeen Abu-Laban (Professor, Dept of Political Science); Kathryn Friesen (Program Manager, Immigration and Settlement Service, Catholic Social Services); Dr. Tom Keating (Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Political Science); Dr. Mojtaba Mahdavi-Ardekani (EMC Chair in Islamic Studies and Ass. Professor, Dept of Political Science); Masood Peracha (Chair, Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities)
• Stephen Lewis, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa 2001 - 2006. Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF 1995 - 1999, Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations 1984 - 1988.
World Leaders committed to 17 global goals
In September 2015, on the UN's seventieth anniversary, at the largest-ever gathering of world leaders at the United Nations Sustainable development Summit met in New York and committed to adopting 17 sustainable development goals. These universal, transformative, goals are to be implemented by 2030.
Unlike their predecessor, the Millennium Development Goals, the SDG's contain a clause of universality. No longer are the goals of sustainable development directed at "developing" countries alone. The SDGs apply to all signatories and have implications not only for Canada's foreign policy but domestic policy as well.