Sustainable Development Goals and Australia
The SDGs, set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and intended to be achieved by the year 2030, are part of a UN Resolution called "The 2030 Agenda".
In its 2015-2016 Annual Report, DFAT said its actions successfully ensured that Australia's national interest and existing aid, trade and foreign policy priorities, and those of its development partners, were reflected in the outcome.
[8] To co-ordinate Australia's domestic and international efforts to advance the 2030 Agenda, the Australian Government formed an Interdepartmental Committee (IDC) of senior officials.
The platform provides an incentive to improve its ability to report and by taking on this task in 'its own right', Australia "is best able to support neighbouring countries to meet their own data challenges".
[16] In June 2018, the Global Compact Network Australia (GNCA) launched a website that allowed organisations to share their SDG aligned projects and activities in one location.
[16] With the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the site was developed in response to industry and key stakeholders keen to have a centralised platform where knowledge and examples of action could be shared openly.
The platform includes a resources section, a news and events feature, additional information on what the SDGs are and their contact within the Australian market.
[20] In July 2018, the Australian Government released its first Voluntary National Review (VNR) of its SDG implementation to the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).
"[22] Australia chose to take a narrative, case-study style approach to show the SDGs are a part of government policy and services delivery, and its broad support in the Australian community.
[38] Among the Committee recommendations are a national SDG implementation plan, the formation of a cross-sector consultation group to advise the Government's IDC on the SDGs and regular mandatory reporting of the country's performance against the goals.
The Government's decision to mainstream the SDGs across its agencies and the create of inter-departmental committee from the very beginning, had already put in place the foundations needed to purse the goals.
The Australian Government recognised shortcomings and championed good practice and it acknowledged the goals as 'the' blue print for a 'whole of Australia' collective response to shared global challenges.
In a letter to the Australian Prime Minister, 52 organisations said the SDGs outline a path to 2030 that leaves no one behind and asked the Government to consider "building on the achievements that Australia has made against the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals".
It reported that trends emerging before the pandemic - higher levels of unemployment, poverty and psychological distress - have been amplified and "could fracture Australian society".
