Community philanthropy and community foundations are key to helping realise the SDGs. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the ‘Global Goals’, have emerged as the universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and for all to enjoy peace and prosperity. The SDGs are designed to work in the spirit of pragmatism and partnership to improve the lives of all people in a sustainable way and are intrinsic to the Sustainable Development Agenda by 2030, adopted by countries. The hope is that if we were to achieve widespread local, regional and global implementation of these 17 goals by 2030, we would have come a long way towards making the world a better place.
Effective sustainable development demands organic community and citizen engagement. This holds great value in this SDG era since using participatory approaches at all levels, technology to promote inclusion and monitor progress, and incorporating the bottom-up agenda-setting will be more effective with respect to achieving sustainable development. This may be a slower and a challenging journey towards achieving the SDGs but one that situates communities as central to their own sustainable development.