The key to accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals is kindness
17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established by 193 nations in 2015 as part of the ambitious 2030 global agenda, which will guide our collective efforts to create a better world. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have gradually increased our understanding of how interdependent all living things are, and how one person's activities in one area of the world can directly affect another person's wellbeing in a different part of the world. One such well-known example is climate change, in which the policies and actions of one nation may have an immediate and often severe influence on those of another, such as when rising temperatures result in disastrous bushfires, droughts, and floods.
These global challenges are interrelated, which puts us in a moral and behavioral bind. Empathy is the ability to recognize, take into account, and then change one's behavior in order to minimize harm to others' living things in neighboring states, nations, and other regions of the world.
This takes me to the value of "kindness," a quality that innately enhances the pleasure and wellbeing of the giver and the recipient.
We will fail if we continue on the previous course of creating "economically efficient beings" while also making an effort to close the inequality gap. Instead, we must work toward a more important objective: human flourishing. To do this, we must cultivate empathy, share the little resources that the world has, and recognize that pleasure is not only dependent on material prosperity.
The good news is that empathy comes naturally to people. However, the outside world suppresses this innate quality by devoting our focus to the chase of worldly prosperity. Recent neuroscientific research, however, indicates that people may learn both the cognitive and emotional dimensions of human behavior; in other words, people can learn to be sympathetic, compassionate, and kind. Kindness may be sparked in us through teaching social and emotional learning (SEL) to young people. SEL teaches people how to recognize and control their emotions, find meaningful work, show empathy for others, accept responsibility for their actions, and advance human flourishing.
The theme of The Blue Dot's eleventh issue is "Kindness," which we see as the force that will enable us to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals and make the world a more peaceful and sustainable environment for our children to live in the future. On "The Need for Kindness and Compassion - Embodying the Values of Mahatma Gandhi," we hear from Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank," Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, experts like Zoran Josipovic on the neuroscience of kindness, Michael Karlin and Brendran Ozawa-De Silva on the science and theory of kindness, and educators Vicki Zakrzewski and John-Tyler Binfet.
The biology of kindness, how it can be used to further the SDGs, and how kindness may benefit young people is all part of the story, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, using kindness as a driving force. As part of the #KindnessMatters for the SDGs youth campaign from the UNESCO MGIEP, we also have a hand-selected collection of young people's experiences with kindness. kindness that we have taken from the 7,300+ stories we have from 120 different countries across the world.
The publication also includes coverage of the #KindnessConcert, which was led by Grammy Award-winning musician and UNESCO MGIEP's Kindness Ambassador Ricky Kej and introduced the official #KindnessAnthem. The World Youth Conference on Kindness' first edition was held in August 2019 in New Delhi, India. Happy reading, everyone, and may the power of good surround us all! As usual, I welcome comments to help me make the magazine better for next issues.
