The International Institute of Welding (IIW) through its IIW Board of Directors Working Group Regional Activities and Liaison with Developing Countries (WGRA) introduced in 1994 the unique IIW WeldCare Programme to assist developing countries to improve their national welding capabilities particularly through the establishment and/or growth of a not-for-profit national welding organisation. Since then, IIW WGRA has assisted many countries freely through the holding of IIW technology innovation workshops, governance workshops and International Congresses as well as providing them with information, experiences and documentation on successful activities particularly from experiences in South Africa, Australia and globally. As an extension and expansion of the IIW WeldCare Programme through IIW WGRA, a project "Establishing a National Welding Capability (NWC)" was created and managed by the author. Several very successful NWC workshops have been held since then to assist not only developing countries but also developed countries which could utilise them to improve their national welding capabilities. These have included Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Hungary, South Africa, India, New Zealand and Thailand amongst others. Based on feedback from the workshops and International Congresses held, the need for 11 comprehensive guidance notes with links to a knowledge resource bank were identified. Improving a country's National Welding Capability can make a significant contribution to, and have a very positive effect on, many national and international programmes including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). When one considers the networks which the IIW, its 50 Member countries, universities, colleges, research organisations and companies involved in welding have, bringing all the available welding resources to assist in achieving the SDGs can have a remarkable positive effect globally on all countries. UNESCO published a report titled "Engineering for Sustainable Development: Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals". There is no reason why a similar initiative could not be undertaken for the welding field. This paper can serve as a catalyst, and the National Welding Capability Project as the basis, for such a report. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate ideas amongst the international welding community for feedback to the author and dissemination into countries to improve their SDGs.