Attached to Paper Session
Meeting Preference
The polycrisis has impacted SDG progress to the point that at the halfway point of the SDG deadline, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that the SDGs were in need of a global rescue plan. Although world leaders adopted a sweeping political declaration to reaffirm commitment to achieving the SDGs, disaggregation of world leaders according to the G7 and G20 yields some insights into how policymaking is impacted by population age structures. All of the G7 countries have older populations but the world population is youthful. The G20 contains a mixture of youthful, middle-aged, and some older populations. The recent addition of the African Union to the G20 is important because 33 of the 46 least developed countries (with youthful populations) are in Africa. The poorest peoples constitute 14% of the world’s population but they only produce 1.3 per cent of the global GDP. The integration of youth leaders into decision making processes has been promoted by the UN as a strategy that improves SDG implementation because youthful populations are the primary beneficiaries of a sustainable and healthy planet. The interfaith movement has given rise to a youth leader interfaith movement, A Common Word Among the Youth, that has produced a set of ten Interfaith Development Goals to compliment, and support the implementation of, the SDGs. A youth climate movement that is rooted in moral identities rather than faith-based identities has emerged from the G7 countries to become a worldwide movement. Interfaith engagement with the G20 would benefit from better integration of youth leaders from both movements into their leadership structure to strengthen political will for implementation of the SDGs.
References
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Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
Although world leaders recently reaffirmed commitments to achieving the SDGs, disaggregation of by G7 and G20 yields insights into how policymaking is impacted by population age structures. All G7 countries have older populations. The world population is youthful. The G20 contains a mix of population types. The integration of youth leaders into decision making processes has been promoted to improve SDG implementation because youthful populations are the primary beneficiaries of a sustainable and healthy planet. The interfaith movement has given rise to a youth leader interfaith movement that has produced a set of ten Interfaith Development Goals to compliment, and support the implementation of, the SDGs. A youth climate movement that is rooted in moral identities rather than faith-based identities has emerged from the G7. Interfaith engagement with the G20 would benefit from better integration of youth leaders from both movements to strengthen political will for implementation of the SDGs.