Mondays meeting topic at Warrington Rotary Club was introduced by Rotarian Chris Ardern. It was a discussion on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It was particularly appropriate as Chris, earlier this year, had spent 3 months working in Borneo on a charity project bringing clean water to a village which had no clean supply and to Rotary as a service organisation involved in global challenges.

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. The goals interconnect and the aim is to reach them by 2030. Each goal is of equal importance to the next with no given priority.

There are 17 goals in total and members broke into groups and were asked to discuss that if we had to prioritise, how we would do so and why. After a period of time each group addressed the meeting with its list of priorities. There was a general consensus with the reported higher priority goals but at the lower priority levels there was a greater disparity between groups. At the end of the exercise it was noted that it would be difficult to prioritise.

The discussions were seen as a success in that it helped members to a greater understanding of the UN and its sustainable development goals.