Abstract
Abstract: The United Nations´ “Agenda 2030” aims, in an integrated manner, to address the entire multitude of major global risks – e.g., to end poverty and hunger, realize the human rights of all, and ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. However, recent political changes put this bold initiative at risk. To increase the likelihood of success, higher education institutions worldwide should teach and train today´s students – tomorrow´s decision makers – to think both critically and ethically, to learn to cope with ethical dilemmas, and to apply systems-thinking approaches to serious and complex societal problems. The Covid-19 pandemic provides just one example of a complex and serious challenge necessitating such approaches. Promoting decent work, full employment and economic growth is one of the other major challenges. And neither of them can be successfully dealt with in a piecemeal manner
Highlights
The United Nations “Agenda 2030” aims, in an integrated manner, to address the entire multitude of major global risks: e.g., to end poverty and hunger, realise the human rights of all, and ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources
In its Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2020), in collaboration with over 200 experts from more than 40 international agencies, concludes that “one third of the way into our SDG journey, the world is not on track to achieve the global Goals by 2030 (...) Forecasts indicate that the [Covid-19] pandemic will push 71 million people back into extreme poverty in 2020 (...) Many of these people are workers in the informal economy, whose incomes dropped by 60 per cent in the first month of the crisis
The Report further points to the “much greater risk of child labour, child marriage and child trafficking”, that “the world is facing its worst recession in generations” and that “there is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to its very core.”
Summary
To increase the likelihood of success for these 17 SDGs, higher education institutions worldwide must teach and train today’s students: tomorrow’s decision-makers, to think both critically and ethically, to learn to cope with ethical dilemmas and apply systems-thinking approaches to serious and complex societal problems (Levi & Rothstein, 2018; Hedenus et al, 2018) This concerns professionals belonging to the health, economy, technology, law and many other sectors. The resulting stress and pathogenic effects of noxious exposures depend on our individual and collective resilience and coping ability Such aspects remain important targets for disease prevention and health promotion. Examples of such amendments would be avoiding, e.g., overemployment, unemployment, exposure to noxious physical, chemical, and biological agents, organisational inadequacies, bullying, and insufficient training and instruction
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