September 2023 - Alliance magazine

Translating SDG language into local dialects

The SDGs are the international community’s flagship for social, economic and environmental welfare. If they are to mean anything and if the world is to come anywhere near achieving them, they must meet the real needs of communities in all countries. How effectively is this being done, what are the challenges and what is the role of philanthropy? The feature is guest edited by Emilia Paz and Rodrigo Villar of CEFIS in Chile. It features expert contributions from Colombia, South Africa, Uganda, India, Italy, the US and Chile.

Elsewhere, we talk to Shahira Ahmed Bazari, CEO of Yayasan Hasanah, the philanthropic arm of the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia. Maja Spanu and Axelle Davezac call for gender equality on foundation boards and make the case for quotas to make it happen.

Special feature

Philanthropy for an uncertain future

5 September 2023
Emilia González and Rodrigo Villar

A study of Latin American responses to the SDGs provides a microcosm of attitudes to be found globally During the late 1990s, a group of experts started using the acronym VUCA to describe the increasing pace of change in our society. The 21st century was to be marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity more than any other era before. Today, this seems almost tautological. On several fronts of our daily lives, we see a …

Charles Keidan

Editorial

SDGs: Lots of action what about progress?

In December 2015, Alliance published a special feature on philanthropy and the Sustainable Development Goals. Titled Why philanthropy should care about the SDGs, the issue’s guest editors, Heather Grady, Bheki Moyo and Sevdalina Rukanova, hailed the new ‘Global Goals’ as ‘one of the most important shifts in international cooperation of the last 50 years.’ My tenure as editor at Alliance began shortly after we published that feature and I recall the sense of optimism. ‘For the first time, the world has universal development goals, representing a pivotal shift in development paradigms,’ our editors gushed. Moreover, the goals ‘reflect the interconnectedness …