06.05.2019 - At a special ceremony to unveil a wall dedicated to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on 1 May, the Deputy Director General of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Pascal Clivaz stressed UPU’s role in achieving the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs).
“Every day the postal network is supporting businesses and consumers, addressing the need for rural infrastructure and development, and enabling health workers to reach out to disabled people. All of these activities are helping to achieve the 2030 Agenda,” he said at the event held in the UPU’s headquarters in Berne, Switzerland.
Mr Clivaz reminded staff how efforts on the 17 goals were providing access to food, offering quality education, delivering clean water and sanitation, introducing peace and justice and overcoming the many obstacles to a better world for everyone. He said that the 17 SDG goals were about building bridges to other people and ensuring gender equality and fairness.
Agreed by the UN General Assembly in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development contains 17 goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators. The 2030 Agenda represents the clearest expression of the world’s determination to lift people out of poverty, promote equality and achieve lasting peace.
The then United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking at the 70th UN General Assembly at the UN’s headquarters in New York in September 2015, said the adoption of the 2030 Agenda was a towering achievement. He said, “Our aim is clear. Our mission is possible. And our destination is in our sights: an end to extreme poverty by 2030; a life of peace and dignity for all.”
He went on to say, “We owe this to a world where inequality is growing, trust is fading, and impatience with leadership can be seen and felt far and wide. We owe this to ‘succeeding generations,’ in the memorable words of the [UN] Charter.”
Several of the SDGs are related to the UPU’s work. Under Goal 9 on building resilient infrastructure for example, in Botswana, the development of the Internet access and various communication activities has increased the revenue of the connected Post Offices by around 25 percent. In Tanzania, under Goal 10 on reducing inequality within countries, the Tanzania Post Corporation has introduced e-learning services in post offices.
On climate change under Goal 13, the UPU is analyzing and reporting on the international postal sector’s carbon footprint. The Online Solution for Carbon Analysis and Reporting – known as OSCAR – is a tool to assist postal operators in the analysis of their individual greenhouse emissions by scope source and product.
The SDG wall was set up in the Beat Fischer room at the UPU’s headquarters. To reinforce the importance of the 2030 Agenda, and the UPU’s efforts to achieve this global agenda, the stairs on eight floors of the UN specialized agency’s headquarters were decked out with the 17 SDGs in eight languages.
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