LocationsHow partnerships help achieve the 2030 Agenda
January 19, 2023
Generation17 young leaders from top left to right: Tamara Dewi Gondo Soerijo, Máximo Mazzocco, Sadya Touré, Shomy Chowdhury, Tafara Makaza, Thuy Ang Ngo, Oğuz Ergen, AY Young, Daniel Calarco, Nadine Khaouli, Yejin Choi, Yurii Romashko, and Nora Altwaijri.
This is a critical moment. We're halfway to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges to our society and the planet and has affected the progress achieved since 2015. We are working on getting back on track for the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Innovative partnerships can mobilize commitments and actions to address these new challenges and accelerate the Global Goals' achievement.
Since the beginning of Samsung and UNDP’s partnership in 2019, we have utilized technology and innovation to raise awareness and funds supporting UNDP's ongoing development work. The Samsung Global Goals (SGG) App has been uniquely important in achieving the 2030 Agenda as it offers simple ways to learn about the Global Goals while generating funding. Since its launch almost four years ago, the SGG app has provided UNDP access to new and ever-widening audiences. It is now installed on over 300 million devices worldwide and available in 89 languages, with one fully customized version in India.
Innovation starts with optimism
“Technology can help us improve from crisis and even enable us as a society to be better equipped to propel progress,” Sergey Lossev, Senior Director of Product Management at Samsung, product development lead for the SGG app, says: "I remain optimistic about achieving the Global Goals because of innovations in tech that enable solutions to scale. The Goals are very ambitious, so it is important to build equally big channels to involve as many people as possible to learn and take action. By creating the most distributed charity app in the world, we’ve taken steps in the right direction, and there is even more opportunity to grow the reach of the app. Asking people to spare a few moments of attention for a good cause is more inclusive than asking only for donations. A good start to using innovation in apps as a force for sustainability."
Young people at the front
Building on the success of the SGG App, the Generation17 Youth Initiative was hatched, piloted, and fully operationalized from 2020 onward, successfully showcasing meaningful youth participation in the Global Goals. The initiative elevates the voices of 14 young leaders making significant impacts in their communities worldwide. As positive agents of change, the work of inspirational young changemakers must be better supported by stakeholders at all levels. Particularly, partnerships between the public and private sectors have positively impacted youth movements, organizations, and initiatives in multiple cases.
New opportunities for leadership
Through our shared commitment to young leaders and delivering on the Global Goals, UNDP and Samsung together continually provide young leaders with the opportunity to lead and participate in critical dialogues at the local, regional and global level. To date, Generation17 have appeared in forums such as ECOSOC Youth Forum, Stockholm+50, COP27, COP15, and with the White House in Washington, DC, and dozens more. The upcoming ECOSOC Partnership Forum on January 31st, 2023 will feature Nadine Khaouli, Shomy Chowdhury, and Daniel Calarco as they propose and debate forward-looking actions to mobilize intergenerational collaboration through innovative partnerships.
Building on strengths to achieve a significant milestone
UNDP's work with Samsung shows how a strong and uniquely innovative digital partnership can manifest. Together we celebrate reaching the milestone of more than USD10 million in contributions as detailed in Samsung's recent announcement, and further highlight how our respective organizational strengths are concretely transforming our world.
With those innovative principles in mind, we have found a strong partnership upon which we can build even further. We are halfway there. Impactful partnerships like the one with Samsung will make possible a brighter, more sustainable, and more inclusive future for all.
Generation17 supports a group of inspiring young leaders aged 18 to 32 dedicated to innovating for humanity and mobilizing global communities. To learn more about this initiative and meet the Generation17 young leaders, the visionaries, advocates and entrepreneurs building a better future, visit generation17.undp.org.
