GLOBAL SUMMIT

Climate Advocates From Across The Globe Pledge Sustainable Development Goals

BY SIMPLICIO PARAGAS

It was a synchronicity that some of the globe’s leaders in sustainability should arrive in Hawai'i the same day that Mauna Loa decided to erupt. Perhaps it was Madame Pele’s way of expressing her aloha or maybe it was her warning about the dangers of climate change. Regardless, there is no doubt that global warming and increased volcanic activity are inextricably linked.

When 20 executive directors from CIFAL— a French acronym for Centre International de Formation des Autorités/ Acteurs Locaux (International Training Centers for Local Authorities and Local Actors)—gathered for the group’s “XIX Steering Committee Meeting Of The

CIFAL Global Network” on the Chaminade campus in November, their message was clear … and it was loud.

“The climate change link is very strong in intensifying both natural disasters and manmade disasters,” says Nikhil Seth, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and executive director for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), which provides innovative learning solutions to individuals, organizations and institutions to enhance global decisionmaking and support country-level action for shaping a better future. “The whole idea of getting all these directors together is for them to be able to understand and to find out what they are doing, and what they are focusing on.”

Since its inception in 2003, CIFAL has continuously expanded not only in size— through the addition of new centers like this one in Honolulu— but also in depth. Currently, 25 CIFAL centers operate on every continent, from Asia and Africa to Europe and the Americas, reaching thousands of stakeholders. In 2021 alone, the CIFAL Global Network reached 82,956 beneficiaries through 110 training and public awareness events in areas related to economic and social development, environmental sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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“The basic lesson of the Sustainable Development Goals is that human hopes, human aspirations, human fears are all interconnected,” Seth asserts. “You can’t separate them and follow them in discreet ways. The SDGs are like an umbrella of issues and almost everything you can possibly think of are probably covered in the 17 SDGs.”

Asked about the importance of this global conference being held here in Hawai'i, Chaminade Provost, Lance Askildson, Ph.D., says it’s not every day that you get to host the United Nations on your campus.

“So, this is a tremendous honor, first and foremost,” says Askildson, who also serves as CIFAL Honolulu Board’s chairman. “Practically speaking though, this is an opportunity for Hawai'i and our CIFAL center to showcase some of our programs and initiatives with the rest of the world. It is also reciprocally an opportunity for us to learn from other CIFAL centers, identify best practices for educating people around issues relating to the Sustainable Development Goals, and hopefully develop some new strategies and tactics that we can then take back into our own programming and communities.”

In 2021 and early 2022, UNITAR welcomed several new satellite centers: CIFAL York in Ontario, Canada; CIFAL Honolulu in Hawai'i; CIFAL Victoria in British Columbia, Canada; and most recently CIFAL Doha in Qatar and CIFAL Majmaah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Through training and education, CIFAL Centers are able to reach indigenous populations, the elderly, migrants and refugees, and persons with disabilities, just to mention a few.

“We want to bring awareness to the climate, our reefs, habitat loss and much more,” says Gail Grabowsky, Dean of the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics and Executive Director of CIFAL Honolulu. “In one of President Clinton’s State of the Union addresses, I remember him saying this one sentence, ‘Our work has just begun,’ which very much applies to our young CIFAL Honolulu center.”

UNITAR convenes these yearly Global Conference meetings of its worldwide network of affiliated training centers to review past performance and achievements, as well as to discuss work plans for the following year, explore synergies among CIFAL centers and other units of UNITAR. In his opening remarks,

Seth highlighted the importance of working with local authorities globally to resonate and act upon the unprecedented scope and significance of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs.

“The trick at the local level and at the national level is to be able to identify those goals and targets, which mean the most in a local context, and which have the maximum co-benefits on all the other goals and targets,” Seth explains. “So, our hope is that by using Dynamic Systems Modeling—that’s a technical way of saying how do these goals and targets interact—you can identify priority areas for your community and focus on those because that’s the best way and the quickest way of getting to the sustainable development goals and the aggregate.”

Today the CIFAL Network extends to a wide range of topics in the areas of governance and urban planning, social inclusion, economic development and environmental sustainability. Each center is committed to contribute meaningful and impactful solutions toward the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, which is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom.

“We have what I call ‘infrastructure inertia,’” Grabowsky says. “I’ve been teaching environmental studies for the past 25 years and the topics I hear today are the same ones I was teaching then. I have no choice but to keep trying what nature tells me is right.”

The 2030 Agenda’s mandate is sweeping and inclusive. Its resolve aims to end poverty and hunger everywhere; to combat inequalities within and among countries; to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies; to protect human rights, and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. The Agenda also resolves to create conditions for sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and decent work for all, taking into account different levels of national development and capacities.

“CIFALs have been successful in achieving many of the goals that we set for them, particularly now in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030,” Seth declares. “Our whole effort is aimed at behavioral and attitudinal change, and I think the CIFALs are doing a tremendous job in that area.”

Askildson agrees.

“We are leveraging our degree programs in Data Science, Analytics and Visualization in order to help address issues as wide ranging as climate action, social equality and clean water, which are resonant issues here in Hawai'i and the Pacific,” Askildson says. “This is an incredibly well aligned initiative for Chaminade. And so we see this as an extension of our university mission in many respects, but it is also an opportunity for us to be more intentional about our approach to sustainability and our contributions here within our local community in Hawai'i and Pacific Island neighbors.”