It’s easy to feel discouraged by how much work is left to achieve the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with their targets of ending poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality, and providing clean water to all, to name a few. To provide a different perspective, the International Peace Institute’s (IPI) peace and sustainable development research has been focusing on “what works.” Part of this research involves asking peacebuilders, policymakers, activists, and SDG experts to identify the ingredients for success in efforts to connect the global 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development to local communities.

This year the UN marks the “Decade of Action,” a call to accelerate delivery on the SDGs, which emphasizes local action. To find the most effective ways forward, IPI and its partners hosted a chat on Twitter about how to implement the SDGs through individual and community action. We wanted to know, beyond the SDG posters hung in the UN Secretariat building and the painted SDG pathway at the UN, how can the 2030 Agenda be locally owned? Read more