CLOSE READING #1.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

INTEGRATION
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the
United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that
by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and
that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Countries have committed to prioritize progress for those who're furthest behind. The SDGs are
designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination against women and girls.

The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve
the SDGs in every context.

1.NO POVERTY
2.ZERO HUNGER
3.GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
4.QUALITY EDUCATION
5.GENDER EQUALITY
6.CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION
7.AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY
8.DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
9.INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
10.REDUCED INEQUALITIES
11.SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
12.RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
13.CLIMATE ACTION
14.LIFE BELOW WATER
15.LIFE ON LAND
16.PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS
17.PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

History
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member
States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the
planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing -
in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must
go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality,
and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve
our oceans and forests.

The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, including the UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs

 In June 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, more than 178
countries adopted Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action to build a global
partnership for sustainable development to improve human lives and protect the
environment.
 Member States unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration at
the Millennium Summit in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York. The
Summit led to the elaboration of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to
reduce extreme poverty by 2015.
 The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of
Implementation, adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
South Africa in 2002, reaffirmed the global community's commitments to poverty
eradication and the environment, and built on Agenda 21 and the Millennium
Declaration by including more emphasis on multilateral partnerships.
 At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, Member States adopted the outcome
document "The Future We Want" in which they decided, inter alia, to launch a
process to develop a set of SDGs to build upon the MDGs and to establish the UN
High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The Rio +20 outcome
also contained other measures for implementing sustainable development,
including mandates for future programmes of work in development financing,
small island developing states and more.
 In 2013, the General Assembly set up a 30-member Open Working Group to
develop a proposal on the SDGs.
 In January 2015, the General Assembly began the negotiation process on
the post-2015 development agenda. The process culminated in the subsequent
adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 17 SDGs at its
core, at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015.
 2015 was a landmark year for multilateralism and international policy shaping,
with the adoption of several major agreements:
 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (March 2015)
 Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development (July 2015)
 Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development with its 17 SDGs was adopted at the UN Sustainable
Development Summit in New York in September 2015.
 Paris Agreement on Climate Change (December 2015)
 Now, the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development serves
as the central UN platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs.
Today, the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United
Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) provides substantive
support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues,
including water, energy, climate, oceans, urbanization, transport, science and
technology, the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR), partnerships and Small
Island Developing States. DSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide
implementation of the 2030 Agenda and on advocacy and outreach activities relating to
the SDGs. In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs
must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global
goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.

Follow DSDG on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sustdev and on Twitter at @SustDev.

Implementation Progress
Every year, the UN Secretary General presents an annual SDG Progress report, which is
developed in cooperation with the UN System, and based on the global indicator
framework and data produced by national statistical systems and information collected
at the regional level.

Please, check below information about the SDG Progress Report:

 SDG Progress Report (2023) (Advance Unedited Version) [PDF]

 SDG Progress Report (2022)
 SDG Progress Report (2021)
 SDG Progress Report (2020)
 SDG Progress Report (2019)
 SDG Progress Report (2018)
 SDG Progress Report (2017)
 SDG Progress Report (2016)

Please, check here for information about SDG indicators and

reports: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs#

Additionally, the Global Sustainable Development Report is produced once every four

years to inform the quadrennial SDG review deliberations at the General Assembly. It is
written by an Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the Secretary-General.

 Global Sustainable Development Report (2019)

 Global Sustainable Development Report (2023)

CLOSE READING #2.The Sustainable Development Goal 6

and School Partnership
Water is essential to life. It constitutes up to 65% of the human body and 90% of the structure of
plants. Thus, if deprived of water, no living being can survive for long. Nevertheless, this
fundamental element to existence is seriously threatened because of pollution of rivers, suffers
shortages in certain regions of the world and costly management in cities.
2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources since 1990, but 663
million people still remain without access to it. Lack of water affects more than 40% of the world
population, with this figure on the increase. More than 80% of wastewater resulting from human
activities is discharged into rivers or sea without any pollution removal. Floods and other water-
related disasters account for 70% of all deaths related to natural disasters.

Why Education is crucial to achieving SDG-6

Comprehensive water education provides the necessary tools to monitor water quality in order to
reduce contamination, helps to improve water use by developing greater resources for its reuse and
contributes to raising awareness among communities to ensure they play an active part in improving
their water management and sanitation. (Access to Learning objectives for SDG-6)

 Early Childhood Care and Education

At this level, children learn to visualize the volume of water used in daily actions and habits and
acquire proper hand-washing and sanitation skills. While doing so, water promotes their creative
development, as it encourages them to use their imagination. (Access Educational materials here)

 Primary Education
At this stage, learners get acquainted with the principle of water abundance and the difference with
water scarcity, both physical and economic, and become aware of its existence as a finite resource.
They develop their understanding of conscious water consumption, thus motivating themselves and
others to change patterns of unsustainable water consumption. (Access Educational materials here)

 Secondary Education
The concept and calculation of a person's water footprint is introduced. Learners develop their
understanding of human-engineered water management systems related to its collection, cleaning
and distribution, thereby preparing themselves to manage competing water demands of agriculture,
industry, growing populations in urban settings or wildlife. (Access Educational materials here)

Multimedia Educational Resources

 Come Celebrate SDG 6 Clean Water & Sanitation With Ray Recycle & Eco Boys And
Girls(link is external) - Poster

Get Inspired

 The Rous Water Early Childhood Water Aware Programme - Page 62 - The Rous Water
Early Childhood Water Aware Programme is underpinned by a “sustainability” framework that
 enables learners to see the big picture with regards to water issues. It links thinking to
practice - water-saving messages are promoted at both educational and operational levels.
In other words, the programme practices what it preaches. The programme involves all
members of a centre’s community - children, teachers, managers and parents. At the
children’s level there is Active Learning: Stories, songs and puppetry actively engage the
children and help them learn to become “waterwatchers”. Application: Learning is then
scaffolded by teachers who apply the learning to problem-solving – e.g. how to water the
garden without a hose.

Pedagogical Resources

 Changemakers - Rohit Fenn(link is external) - Fresh water availability is a major problem in

several areas of the world yet we flush billions of litres of treated water down our toilets every
day. Rohit is redesigning the toilet to reduce consumption.
 Chakra The Invincible(link is external) - A comic adventure to support Sustainable
Development Goal 6.
 Get Connected - Water In The World(link is external) - This resource focuses on the
importance of access to clean, safe water for communities around the world. It explores
water challenges facing Australia as well as case studies on Niger and Indonesia.

Ideas for Classroom Activities

 Clean Water For All(link is external) - This resource aims to define water pollution, outline
some of the causes of water pollution and describe the global inequality of access to clean
water.
 Water Challenge Badge(link is external) - This booklet invites to explore, play, discover, and
come up with some clever ways to help preserve water in our homes.
 Teacher's Notes: Why Is Clean Water Important(link is external) - Students explore the
difference between clean and dirty water; how people use and access water, comparing
Australia and Uganda. Students will then develop a list of personal hygiene behaviours that
rely on using clean water.

Multimedia Educational Resources

 SDG 6 - Water Management(link is external) - A video from the ISLANDS project presenting
the relevance of water management.
 Can You Live With Dirty Water(link is external) - Every day, 1.1 billion people have to wash
with, bathe in and drink dirty water. We can’t live with that fact. Can you?
 The 20 Litre Water Challenge(link is external) - This video shows how Suzy from Melbourne
is taught a lesson by Anyaka, a 14-year-old Ugandan girl. Girls in developing countries
spend hours each day collecting water for their families with long-term implications for their
health and wellbeing.

Get Inspired
  Israel -A scientific and cultural approach to developing a sustainable water supply for local
environments - Page 26 - A number of Jewish Schools participate in the SEMEP
Programme, which has been assimilated into the syllabuses for either Science and
Technology or for Environmental Studies. As partners in the SEMEP initiative, Jewish
Schools, which are technologically equipped for science education and for the SEMEP
programme, support and facilitate the conceptual development and the acquisition of skills
and habits of mind that constitute environmental literacy. The SEMEP Programme in
elementary schools is taught from the standpoint that the pupils have no prior experiences
relative to the topic being studied.

Pedagogical Resources

 Clean Water And Sanitation: Why It Matters(link is external) - Technical Note presenting SDG
6, why clean water and sanitation matters, what are their effects, what would it cost to correct
the problem and what can we do.
 Learning About Water - Multiple-Perspective Approaches - The Multiple-Perspective Tool is a
valuable framework for teaching any sustainable development issue. The focus of this
companion document is on applying multiple perspectives for ESD to freshwater issues.
 Water Toolkit(link is external) - This toolkit explores water and sanitation in many parts of the
world where these resources are limited, with information about the challenges of accessing
safe water and clean toilets in the developing world.

Ideas for Classroom Activities

 Clean Water For All(link is external) - This resource aims to: Define water pollution; State or
outline some of the causes of water pollution; Describe the global inequality of access to
clean water.
 Water Challenge Badge(link is external) - This booklet invites to explore, play, discover, and
come up with some clever ways to help preserve water in our homes.
 Clean Water And Sanitation(link is external) - This teacher and pupil resource encourages
classroom activities around clean water and sanitation.

Multimedia Educational Resources

 Ethiopia: Access To Water, Access To Education(link is external) - Video showcasing how

projects coordinated by UNICEF and the European Union have brought more than a hundred
water points to the Machakel district in Ethiopia.
 Tell Us What Water Is To You(link is external) - Nearly 750 million people do not have access
to safe drinking water every day – this is more than the population of Europe. For children, a
lack of safe water affects every aspect of their lives – from nutrition to education to safety.
 Running Dry: A Call To Action(link is external) - This documentary explores the growing
global water crisis and its staggering toll of some 14,000 quiet preventable deaths per day.
Focusing on China, the Middle East, Africa, India, and the United States, Running Dry
presents compelling arguments for international cooperation on water issues.
Get Inspired

 Promotion of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Education and Water Quality Monitoring in
Mangalore, India - The project aims to promote human value-based water, sanitation and
hygiene education, augment provision of safe drinking water and provide sanitation facilities
in schools in Mangalore. The programme, developed by The Energy and Research Institute
(TERI), empowers not just students but the community to adopt adequate measures to
minimize water-borne diseases. Two schools have been identified as model schools where
Water Resource Centres are being established.