The sustainable development goals (SDGs) are a new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next 15 years. The 17 SDGs that were adopted at the 70th General Assembly of the United Nations have resulted in one of this global agency’s most ambitious agendas.

169 goals in all that seek to establish a watershed for humanity. Some goals are a follow-up on the Millennium Development Goals from the year 2000, and others are new as a result of society’s transformation over time. To achieve these goals, everyone has to pull their weight: governments, the private sector, civil society and ordinary citizens.

In our International Campaign for the Proclamation of a Youth Employment Decade, our main goals are number 4 (Quality Education), and especially number 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). However, all projects, whether public or private, require a series of essential partnerships to achieve their purposes. This is goal number 17: Partnership.

The most important way of achieving the SDGs was touched upon in the UN press conference: “We will need all partners to make this a success.” Multistakeholder partnerships, involving government, the private sector and civil society, have been described as the “glue” that will hold this process together, and will be the only way of ensuring these incredibly ambitious goals are met.

Given the importance of seeking partners to achieve the goals, the United Nations, through its specific Sustainable Development Goals website, has launched a digital portal where any relevant initiatives can be submitted. By filling-in a form detailing your project, you can get in touch with other initiatives that have already achieved their goals or that are still active.

Almost two thousand initiatives, involving more than 6,500 people, have registered on the site to date. Thanks to the filters provided to search for potential partners, any person with a project designed for a specific Goal can find people who are working in the same field and establish synergies.