Three Pathways for SDG Innovation: Thriving Cultures, Interdependent Mindset, & Lightheartedness

A side event during UN High Level Political Forum 2024 organized by the Unitive Cluster, a member of UN NGO Major Groups.
Effective delivery on the 2030 Agenda requires that nations champion human happiness and wellbeing by building cultures of peace based on values like kinship, cooperation, resilience, and justice. At the same time, too many national, regional and local cultures innately generate injustice, unhappiness and unwellness. Cultural conditions are both a reflection and an impediment of SDG progress, which necessarily requires flourishing cultures that value global partnerships, ecological intelligence, solidarity, empathy and joy.
The speakers took the audience on an interactive exploration of:
* Happiness and wellbeing as basis points for human and planetary health
* Moving beyond GDP metrics
* The interdependent mindset required to move from fixing relentless crisis to a world grounded in happiness, abundance, and wellbeing
* Lightheartedness and humor as paths toward empathy, a bridge toward solidarity and a critical tool for truth telling