Health, gender, equity, and justice: potential synergies among SDGs

Building on several chapters of the IUFRO WFSE project’s newly published book, Sustainable Development Goals: Their Impacts on Forests and People, this presentation focuses on the following people-oriented SDGs, SDG 3 (health), SDG 5 (gender), SDG 10 (equity), and SDG 16 (justice). The book considers the potential and likely impacts of the implementation of each of the SDGs on forests and people. The findings from across the globe show an evident lack of
attention to these people-oriented SDGs, which if implemented with care, represent a combination that has the potential to work in a transformative manner for both people and for forests. The presentation examines some of the potential synergies among these SDGs and identifies some of the shortcomings in current implementation efforts. Particular attention is devoted to 1) the potential to stimulate and support constructive efforts of the female half of the global population (including traditional knowledge, creativity, energy, and motivation); 2) how to activate currently marginalized groups (certain ethnic groups, lower castes, those financially strapped, LGBTQ individuals, etc.); 3) the synergies between progress in establishing greater global justice (between the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’ and among groups within each broad category) with clear impacts on and roles for marginalized groups; and 4) the positive contributions to forests and peoples of improved health for forest populations ith care, represent a combination that has the potential to work in a transformative manner for both people and for forests. The presentation examines some of the potential synergies among these SDGs and identifies some of the shortcomings in current implementation efforts. Particular attention is devoted to 1) the potential to stimulate and support constructive efforts of the female half of the global population (including traditional knowledge, creativity, energy, and motivation); 2) how to activate currently marginalized groups (certain ethnic groups, lower castes, those financially strapped, LGBTQ individuals, etc.); 3) the synergies between progress in establishing greater global justice (between the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’ and among groups within each broad category) with clear impacts on and roles for marginalized groups; and 4) the positive contributions to forests and peoples of improved health for forest populations.