Awareness Assessment Study and Ways to Deepen the Knowledge and Practice of the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were formed to continually improve the quality of life enjoyed by humanity, stabilize progress made in sustainable development advancements and prevent the continued deterioration of natural life support systems. The study looked at the level of awareness/understanding, knowledge acquired by the generality of people, and perceived importance attached to the various SDGs by stakeholder groups sampled in Port Harcourt metropolis. We administered a questionnaire to a total of three-hundred persons, and our findings show gaps between what they have heard about SDGs and what SDGs entail. Based on this evident gap, we proposed nine recommendations that can deepen the knowledge and practice of SDGs, some of which are: the establishment of sustainable development and climate change clubs in secondary schools, enhancing awareness/knowledge and practices of SDGs and their targets through facilitative workshops, expanding the sustainability pillars to six by including performance as the sixth pillar and sub-dividing them into three functional groups. Also, expounding how interrelated and interlinked the SDGs are towards marrying the need for a holistic approach and focusing on the priority SDG needs of each locality, the enactment of enabling laws, enhancing the SDG Week concept, and the intensification of stakeholder education was mentioned.