Lehigh Students Serve as Rapporteurs at the 2016 CTAUN Conference

Hours before Winter Storm Jonas hit New York City on Friday, January 22, the 2016 Committee on Teaching About the United Nations (CTAUN) Conference successfully concluded an informative day filled with panels, presentations, and discussions at United Nations Headquarters.

This year’s CTAUN Conference, titled, “Stewardship for a Sustainable World: Education in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” focused on a range of topics related to the SDGs, such as the process of drafting the SDGs, crucial differences between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the SDGs, and the importance of spreading awareness about the MDGs in order to achieve them. The morning panel addressed various aspects of the goal of ending hunger, and the afternoon panel stressed the need to respect the environment.

Sitting a few rows away from the speakers, a Lehigh University group of Fulbright students, UN Youth Representatives of NGOs, and Global Citizenship Program members took detailed notes and prepared to ask questions. Their participation in the conference extended well beyond attendance, including the additional opportunity of contributing to a conference blog and serving as official rapporteurs covering the sessions.

David Méndez Martinez, a Lehigh Fulbright student from Panama studying to achieve an M.A. in Education, said, “The CTAUN Conference provided insight about how leaders around the world got together to create and deliver to the world the SDGs.” He added, “I liked how leaders who were present during the negotiation of the SDGs expressed their thoughts and what educators should do to help the UN.”

Sam Waldorf, a senior in Lehigh’s Global Citizenship Program, said that he enjoyed observing educators’ enthusiasm for learning about the SDGs. “In order for these goals to be successful,” he said, “it is important that people around the world are educated about these lofty goals.”

Throughout the conference, several central points emerged.

Paramount to the conference itself was the recognition of educators and their pivotal role of teaching about the SDGs. During the introductory session, UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Cristina Gallach stated, “Education is a critical building block of any society. Educators are fundamental to achieving the goals of the UN.”

After explaining how the SDGs carefully evolved through the negotiating and drafting stages, Ambassador David Donoghue, the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the UN and Co-Facilitator of the Intergovernmental Consultative Process for the SDGs, also added, “This year is the year of implementation, and we absolutely need the help of everyone, especially educators to reach young people.”

Speakers additionally highlighted the powerful sense of shared creation of the SDGs and responsibility for taking action to achieve them. While moderating the afternoon panel on the environmental priorities of the SDGs, Senior Advisor for Sustainable Development for the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, Rima Cempaka, described the September 2015 UN General Assembly adoption of the SDGs. “It was a very emotional moment, because everyone felt strong ownership of it,” she said. Her words demonstrate that the SDGs symbolize a universally empowering project for progress.

The morning panel specifically delved into the second SDG, which is “zero hunger.”  Moving from a presentation on the issue of stunted growth due to malnutrition to another on health food co-ops in Burlington, Vermont, all the presenters promoted the concept that all people have a right to a consistent supply of healthy food. Martin Gallagher, the Senior Liaison Officer on Food Security within the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, summarized the bottom line: “It’s about realizing individuals’ rights.”

Similarly, the afternoon panel also drew attention to individuals’ rights. Juan Chebly, the Lead Advisor of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Coordinator of The World We Want 2015 Policy and Strategy Group, said the UN definition of sustainable development is, “meeting the needs of the current generation without harming future ones.” He added, “It’s mainstream nowadays, but we lose track of what it means—defending the human rights of future generations.”

As a serious side-note, he also spoke on the conflict in Syria, where he said that humanitarian aid workers are being denied access—meaning that innocent civilians are currently starving. He declared, “People cannot be used as instruments of war.”

 The other afternoon panelists also focused on the right of living in a safe environment with the necessary life-supporting natural resources. For example, Dr. Eugene Stakhiv, a Water Resources Engineer and Visiting Scholar at John Hopkins University, cited the fact that “1.4 billion people lack safe drinking water.” Referring to the case in Flint, Michigan, he said that this is “inexcusable,” and that providing safe water “takes time and money, but it’s not rocket science.”

Towards the end of the conference, during the roundtable on committing to the SDGs, the moderator of the afternoon roundtable, Verdentum Founder Rohit Pothusuchi, made an important observation. He emphasized the fact that millions of people all around the world do not have the resources to attend UN conferences to learn about the SDGs. However, they need to be informed and their voices heard, he said, adding, “We have to reach out to everyone.”