DUBAI, 23 January 2021 – Beginning last week (15 January) with an impassioned speech by the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Expo 2020 Dubai ended its Global Goals Week on Saturday (22 January) with a promise to keep driving efforts to address the world’s biggest challenges.
“It is up to each and every one of us, individually and collectively, to turn this engagement into partnerships and investments that tangibly improve people’s lives everywhere,” Amina J Mohammed said at the launch at Al Wasl Plaza last week. “With the Global Goals woven into the fabric of Expo 2020, I cannot think of a more appropriate place for us to renew our shared commitment to keep the promises that we made in 2015.”
Since then, Global Goals Week – held in association with the UN, and staged outside New York for the first time – has hosted a myriad of special hybrid events, activations and unforgettable visitor experiences, each highlighting our collective, urgent need to address the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) before the end of 2030.
Speakers at headline event ‘Global Goals for All’ at the Nexus for People and Planet in Expo’s Opportunity District included Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director, UN Global Compact; Jerome Foster II, US climate justice activist and youngest-ever White House Climate Advisor; the Rt Hon Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand; and SDG advocates British screenwriter Richard Curtis and US actress Robin Wright.
‘All hands on deck’
Joining virtually, Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said: “If we’re going to reach the critical goals by 2030, we need 2022 and every year after to be a year of action. It’s going to take all hands on deck – governments, philanthropies, non-profits and the private sector; acommitted focus to working together to reach the SDGs in the next years.”
