UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, countries of the United Nations set the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or Global Goals) “to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.” AFS-USA supports the Global Goals and we’re focusing more of our programs on them to amplify, and encourage action toward, their ambitious vision for a sustainable, peaceful world.

To learn more and make a difference, in your own community or abroad, explore the resources below and consider applying for a short summer Global Prep program that focuses on sustainable development and change-making.

Choose a goal to learn more about the underlying issues, specific objectives, and AFS programs that address them.

Sustainable Development 101 for Students

We the People for the Global Goals A celebrity-packed video from the Global Goals promoting the UN’s Global Goals. (3 mins)
Introducing the Global Goals and World’s Largest Lesson, Part 1 with Malala An animation from the World’s Largest Lesson with Malala that introduces the idea of sustainable development, The Global Goals, and World’s Largest Lesson. (5 mins)
Introducing the Global Goals and World’s Largest Lesson, Part 2 with Emma Watson An animation from the World’s Largest Lesson with Emma Watson that gives examples of projects working to impact the Global Goals. (5 mins)
What is Sustainable Development? An animated short from the World’s Largest Lesson that defines sustainable development and explains how and why it is so important for our world.
Sustainable Development Goals: 17 Goals to Transform our World The primary source of information about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (aka. The Global Goals). Get an overview or dig deeper into the specific targets that make up the goals, the social problems underlying them, and work being done to reach them.
The Global Goals homepage General insights and many resources that dive into the Global Goals.
Global Citizenship in Action: Accomplishing Sustainable Development Goals An article from AFS International that interviews two AFS Trustees (who are experts in development and education) about the importance of the SDGs and how we can achieve them together.
SDG Index And Dashboards Report 2018: Global Responsibilities Annual overview of countries performance on the 17 SDGs from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Search by country or focus on a goal within this long, detailed report that tracks the world’s progress toward the goals.

Changemaker 101 for Students

The Story of Ashoka An animated video from Ashoka detailing the story of Ashoka and their mission.
Ashoka isu2026 A video from Ashoka in which members of the Ashoka community define their impact as an organization.
How to Become a Changemaker in Today’s World A TedxTalk by Miguel Joey Aviles in which he unpacks the conscious decision of becoming a changemaker.
#LeadYoung – Great Changemakers Start in their Youth From Ashoka, an overview of Ashoka Lead Young, “a campaign that demonstrates, through storytelling, the power of young people who have dreamed a problem-solving dream, formed and led a team, and created a solution that changed their world.”
Ashoka Youth Venture Homepage From Ashoka, the homepage of Ashoka’s Youth Venture that “works with young people and partners to co-create tools and programs that help young people self-identify as changemakers and master critical pathways for thriving as changemakers.”
Sustainable Community Development: From What’s Wrong to What’s Strong A TedX Talk on how to build solutions based on existing strengths of communities in need.
Venture Guide: S.M.A.R.T. Goals A video from Ashoka that discusses the importance of setting Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely goals to ensure success.
Stop Trying to Save the World: Big Ideas are Destroying International Development A critical essay from the New Republic that gives examples of international development projects that have unintended negative consequences because they do not fully understand the contexts in which they try to make change. The author argues for more careful, slower scaling of new models and localizing international development ideas so they better account for the differences across communities and how those differences affect the implementation and effectiveness of projects that have succeeded elsewhere.

Lesson Plans

Content Area Lesson Ideas Expand our lesson plan into a full unit of study that fits your subject or content area’s specific needs and learning objectives. Subjects covered: English & Language Arts, Family & Consumer Sciences, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Social Studies, and World Languages.
Teaching Sustainable Development Goals: 1 Hour Course A course from the World’s Largest Lesson for educators to learn how to teach children and young people about the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Global Goals Debate: A Lesson Plan for Teachers This lesson plan from the World’s Largest Lesson requires a bit of preparation by your students, but it allows your students to learn about The Goals, critically evaluate them, and then debate their significance and what to do about them in class.
Comics illustrating each of The Global Goals A fun comic from the World’s Largest Lesson that explores the issues underlying The Global Goals and ways we can work on them.
The World We Want: A Guide to The Goals for Children and Young People An accessible breakdown of the Global Goals from the World’s Largest Lesson and ways to explore how to reach them.

Sustainable Development 101 for Educators

We the People for the Global Goals A celebrity-packed video from the Global Goals promoting the UN’s Global Goals. (3 mins)
Introducing the Global Goals and World’s Largest Lesson, Part 1 with Malala An animation from the World’s Largest Lesson with Malala that introduces the idea of sustainable development, The Global Goals, and World’s Largest Lesson. (5 mins)
Introducing the Global Goals and World’s Largest Lesson, Part 2 with Emma Watson An animation from the World’s Largest Lesson with Emma Watson that gives examples of projects working to impact the Global Goals. (5 mins)
What is Sustainable Development? An animated short from the World’s Largest Lesson that defines sustainable development and explains how and why it is so important for our world.
Sustainable Development Goals: 17 Goals to Transform our World The primary source of information about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (aka. The Global Goals). Get an overview or dig deeper into the specific targets that make up the goals, the social problems underlying them, and work being done to reach them.
The Global Goals homepage General insights and many resources that dive into the Global Goals.
Global Citizenship in Action: Accomplishing Sustainable Development Goals An article from AFS International that interviews two AFS Trustees (who are experts in development and education) about the importance of the SDGs and how we can achieve them together.
SDG Index And Dashboards Report 2018: Global Responsibilities Annual overview of countries performance on the 17 SDGs from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Search by country or focus on a goal within this long, detailed report that tracks the world’s progress toward the goals.

Changemaker 101 for Educators

The Story of Ashoka An animated video from Ashoka detailing the story of Ashoka and their mission.
Ashoka isu2026 A video from Ashoka in which members of the Ashoka community define their impact as an organization.
How to Become a Changemaker in Today’s World A TedxTalk by Miguel Joey Aviles in which he unpacks the conscious decision of becoming a changemaker.
#LeadYoung – Great Changemakers Start in their Youth From Ashoka, an overview of Ashoka Lead Young, “a campaign that demonstrates, through storytelling, the power of young people who have dreamed a problem-solving dream, formed and led a team, and created a solution that changed their world.”
Ashoka Youth Venture Homepage From Ashoka, the homepage of Ashoka’s Youth Venture that “works with young people and partners to co-create tools and programs that help young people self-identify as changemakers and master critical pathways for thriving as changemakers.”
Sustainable Community Development: From What’s Wrong to What’s Strong A TedX Talk on how to build solutions based on existing strengths of communities in need.

Intercultural Learning

Basic Intercultural Terminology From AFS, definitions for intercultural, cross-cultural, multicultural, intercultural learning, intercultural competence, intercultural communication, ethnocentrism, ethnorelativism, cultural informant, and cultural deviants or outliers.
Concepts and Theories of Culture From AFS, three models of culture – the iceberg, the onion, and the tree – provide a visually-engaging way to teach that culture includes both visible and underlying, partially-hidden, or invisible phenomena. Consider discussing these models and applying them to American cultures.
Tools to Suspend Judgment From AFS, these models of interaction can help students understand that just coming to a mutual understanding across cultures requires careful communication.
AFS Educational Goals Trying to fit changemaking into your required curriculum? These educational goals can help you connect these lessons to required standards, and give students a better sense of expected learning outcomes.
Debriefing Experiential Learning In many ways, the Project: Change trip is experiential learning in action. To help students grasp that idea, you can show them Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle.

English

Short videos to introduce students/educators to the goals: www.globalgoals.org/films
Lesson plans provided by the World’s Largest Lesson to support all of the goals in individual lesson plans: worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/all-lesson-plans
Online game in English: gamethegoals.com
Educational board game in many languages: go-goals.org/pt-pt

Arabic

French

German

Hindi

Great overview of goals and sub goals in Hindi OR UNDP SDG Booklet Hindi 15thSept16 – United Nations India
www.drishtiias.com/hindi/to-the-points/paper2/sustainable-development-goals-sdg
Description of the transition from the Millennium Development Goals and Introduction of SDGs: सतत् विकास लक्ष्य – Drishti IAS OR in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals-a-handbook
SDGs in different regional languages: The NITI Aayog (Hindi for Policy Commission) (abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India) is a policy think tank of the Government of India, established with the aim to achieve sustainable development goals with cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of State Governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach. Its initiatives include “15-year road map”, “7-year vision, strategy, and action plan”, AMRUT, Digital India, Atal Innovation Mission, Medical Education Reform, agriculture reforms (Model Land Leasing Law, Reforms of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act, Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index for ranking states), Indices Measuring States’ Performance in Health, Education and Water Management, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Rationalization of Centrally Sponsored Schemes, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Skill Development, Task Forces on Agriculture and up of Poverty, and Transforming India Lecture Series.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

One world. 17 goals to save it.