Women’s health, Education, Water, Sanitation, and other pressing issues addressed at the ET SDGs Impact Summit

The inaugural The Economic Times SDGs Impact Summit was held in New Delhi at the Taj Palace Hotel, convening 500+ international delegates, panelists, change makers, activists and influencers rallying to propel the momentum of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The summit was brought together by, Times Strategic Solutions Limited, and The World We Want, a global impact enterprise, working to accelerate the progress of the SDGs.

The Summit featured Plenary and Speed Talk Sessions as well as a Hackathon in search of the next generation of disruptors. Audiences within and beyond the Global South were encouraged to mobilise urgent action to address some of the pressing issues of the decade including climate change, inequality, poverty, gender equality, education and health, broadly segmented into four thematic areas – People, Prosperity, Planet and Partnerships.

The issues covered spanned environmental, the housing crisis in Hong Kong and the need for sustainable cities, water and sanitation, women’s health and sustainability practices.

Speaking about the launch of the summit, Natasha Mudhar, Founder of The World We Want and India Director for the campaign to popularise the SDGs, said: “To achieve the SDGs by 2030, we need a truly global effort of cross-sector collaboration, where East meets West, Private Sector meets Public, business meets government, innovation meets investment, entrepreneur meets activist. Taking this one step further, we also need cross-continental collaboration, where the Global North and South align.The inaugural Summit certainly created an initiation in the discussion, but we don’t want the curtain to fall here. It’s now time for the advocacy to become action and this requires sustained ongoing discussion across the proceeding decade.”

The 17 SDGs were first established at the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 by 193 world leaders, with a commitment to ending global poverty, reducing inequalities and tackling climate change by 2030.