Dóchas: 2016 Irish Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals

“2016 Irish Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals”

Featuring:

Opening address by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins

Keynote speech by Erik Solheim, Chairperson of OECD Development Assitance Committee

2016 is a momentous year for Ireland as we celebrate the centenary of the 1916 rising. This gives us a unique opportunity as a society to reflect on our priorities as a country and our ideas for how to shape our future. For the past 100 years, Ireland has played a significant role in international development and made a tremendous impact in the fight against poverty and injustice, through its missionaries, aid programmes, citizens, politicians, artists, emigrants and diplomats. The year 2015 was a seminal year, as a new international framework was set out to agree the Sustainable Development Goals - a series of 17 ambitious targets to end extreme poverty and inequality and tackle climate change. This summit will look at how Ireland can advance these historic new goals.

The Irish summit is envisaged as a public gathering of International and Domestic NGOs, Government departments and private sector organisations in Ireland, to explore the concepts underpinning these new goals and, ultimately, give sector-wide endorsement to Ireland’s implementation of this new framework.