SUSTAINABILITY WATCH NIGERIA

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, an international football tournament contested by the men’s national teams of the member associations of FIFA once every four years. This years’ tournament took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018.

The 2018 World Cup by numbers has a statistic of …..

“World Cup 2018 by numbers: Russia’s £9bn budget, 3 billion watching on TV, a 5,000 per cent hike in hotel prices and £1.2m to kill stray dogs… all the facts and figures for the tournament”

Now let talk about the Global Goals…

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General from 2007 to 2016, has stated that: “We don’t have plan B because there is no planet B!. This thought has guided the development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

On 25 September 2015, the 193 countries of the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Development Agenda titled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. This agenda has 92 paragraphs. Paragraph 51 outlines the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the associated 169 targets.



The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (or Global Goals for Sustainable Development) is a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations in 2015 with the aim of transforming our World by the year 2030 with the Agenda 2030. The goals are broad and interdependent, yet each has a separate list of targets to achieve. Achieving all 169 targets would signal accomplishing all 17 goals. The SDGs cover social and economic development issues including poverty, hunger, health, education, global warming, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanization, environment and social justice.



If 3 billion people watched the tournament on TV and how many persons played in the tournament just a few you will say and how many scored a goal. The Highest goals scorer scored a total of Five goals and there we lot of player who didn’t have the chance to kick the ball once talk less of scoring a goal. You are also aware that some countries did not also score a single goal. Now let assume that the Sustainable Development Goals is the World Cup and for me as a Goal 1 ( No Poverty) advocate is to ensure that there is no more poverty in the world come 2030. You saw the huge budget allocated for the hosting of the tournament in Russia, what budgets as nations making in ensuring that there are no more poor individuals in their community or country come 2030.



Will you be among those who will sit and watch what the outcomes will be come 2030, or you will be among those that will score a goal to ensure it is actualize (any of the 17 global goals) or you will hike the stake in reducing world poverty or you are working or advocating for the actualization of more than one of the goals or you just want to pay lip service.



If all nation prepare their citizenry to actualize the global goals as they prepare their teams for the world cup then in 2030 there surely will be no poverty or the level of poor persons in the world will drastically reduced. In many African countries, well I stand to be corrected little or nothing is being done in ending poverty, if I use Nigeria as a case study, how many people knows about the SDGs or the global goals not to talk about the set targets and the indicators. I know some individuals are trying their best likewise some organization but many of the organizations are Untied Nations affiliated.



Extreme poverty has been cut by more than half since 1990. Still, more than 1 in 5 people live on less than the target figure of US$1.25 per day. That target may not be adequate for human subsistence, however. It may be necessary to raise the poverty line figure to as high as $5 per day. Poverty is more than the lack of income or resources. People live in poverty if they lack basic services such as healthcare, security, and education. They also experience hunger, social discrimination, and exclusion from decision-making processes.

Children make up the majority – more than half – of those living in extreme poverty. In 2013, an estimated 385 million children lived on less than US$1.90 per day. Still, these figures are unreliable due to huge gaps in data on the status of children worldwide. On average, 97 percent of countries have insufficient data to determine the state of impoverished children and make projections towards SDG Goal 1, and 63 percent of countries have no data on child poverty at all.

So, what contribution will you make today why not join us in taking action to ensure poverty is eradicated.

I'm in. what shall i do?