Many who have been working with or looking more deeply into the Agenda 2030 and the SDG may have been very critical about their limitations, contradictions, their problematic origins and structure and may not even be surprised, but still saddened, about where we have come to with the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the SDG. 

With the recent midway SDG Summit at the UN in New York in September 2023 we see it as the best time and opportunity to re-invigorate Gaia Education’s SDG programme, including the SDG flashcards, SDG tools, SDG multiplier training (face to face and online) and other future SDG related events, courses, projects and support for SDG related action and their implementation (see below), which can support and bring the implementation efforts to the next, systemic and integrated level, in line with Gaia Education’s mission towards holistic and transformative education for resilience and regeneration (or the basis for “RDG - regenerative development goals” in the future?) and integrate it with all other educational offers of Gaia Education. 

Nevertheless, if you are or have been engaged in the implementation of the SDG or not, or have moved away or even beyond the SDG, or on the other hand want to use the opportunity and necessity to get engaged with the SDG, the Agenda 2030 (again) and see the SDG is a worldwide agreement for a better future for all (human and non-human) and we at Gaia Education see it as an opportunity to engage and empower people from all backgrounds in all contexts and settings to contribute towards a more sustainable, ecologically regenerative, resilient, socially just transition and transformation towards a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. 

This is why Gaia Education has developed and issued SDG flashcards (supported and endorsed by UNESCO) and conducted SDG Multiplier Training (ToM) starting in 2016 in many locations around the world (which was hampered during the pandemic) to contribute to a holistic and systemic understanding and implementation of the SDG in various contexts, particularly at local and grass-roots level, and facilitate a regenerative understanding of development based on transformed worldviews, beliefs, values, mind sets and attitudes as well as deep connection and caring for others and the world. 

Agenda 2030 will be achieved only if communities, businesses, local governments and civil society organisations everywhere come to understand the Sustainable Development Goals as a shared framework and vision that enables them to structure new kinds of cross-sector collaboration. The SDGs are a huge opportunity to overcome sectorial divides and together commit to making the global goals our shared local goals. Gaia Education sincerely hopes that the flashcards, handbook, a project canvas and training of multipliers which it developed and implemented will contribute to this process.

Gaia Education considers now as the best time to re-invigorate our contributions towards training and education to facilitate the systemic, transformative and holistic advancement and implementation of the Agenda 2030 and SDG in line with the UN #ESDfor2030 (Education for Sustainable Development) programme. 

After all this is what we are aiming for:

The more beautiful world our hearts know is possible

In the midst of all the ominous exhortations to change our behaviours and lifestyles, let us remember that we are striving to create a more beautiful world, not, with increasing sacrifice, to preserve the present one. We are not just trying to survive. We are not just facing extinction; we are facing a glorious opportunity. We are offering people not a world of less, not a world of sacrifice, not a world of simply enjoying less and suffering more - no, we are offering a world of more beauty, more joy, more connection, more love, more fulfilment, more exuberance, more leisure, more music, more dance and more celebration. 

The most inspiring glimpses you've had of what life can be - that's what we offer.

~ Charles Eisenstein