In 2012, during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Rio+20 Summit), all Member States adopted an outcomes document titled "The Future We Want". From this document and Summit, a roadmap was presented for the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) global development agenda. This journey took the world down the road to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its indivisible 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as agreed during the United Nations General Assessment in September 2015 in New York, USA. The SDGs are seen as the blueprint "to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all" with no one left behind. The 17 SDGs and their 169 targets are supposed to address the major challenges facing the world today, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Their implementation is taking place at the national and sub-national levels with many countries having domesticated and localised the SDGs. Overall, the SDGs are to align with national development agendas presented in the form of National Development Plans and Visions. From a research and training perspectives, the SDGs bring several research angles, while many organisations that include municipalities and corporates are utilising the framework to enhance service and project delivery.
Why this Unisa SDGs Library Guide?
The purpose of this Library Guide is to provide a portal for researchers and students that will support them when doing research on SDGs by providing subscription-based as well as open-access databases, reports, statistics etc. The Library Guide is open for use in training and building SDGs capacity by key stakeholders including those outside Unisa and academic set-ups. In addition, governments will not be able to achieve the SDGs on their own and will need the support and collaboration from libraries, the private sector, civil society, and higher education. As such, Unisa took this initiative to set-up this Library Guide to enhance research, development, and innovation; teaching and learning; as well as community engagement. The initiative further links into the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) SDGs initiative.
Welcome!
