By Kai Pflug
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, is a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. At the core are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and promoting economic growth while also tackling climate change and protecting the environment.
For Afghanistan, a poor country that faces most of the issues addressed by the development goals, almost all of the 17 SDGs are highly relevant. Afghanistan is a country in dire need of support – but currently, it gets very little and thus is currently at the center of the StayIN work.
StayIN aims to improve the life of the Afghan people – however, we focus on only some of the 17 goals. These are the goals for which we – based on our resources, which mostly are knowledge-based rather than financial – think we can make the biggest impact.
The table below gives a preliminary assessment of the importance of the 17 development goals for Afghanistan and the goals that StayIN will focus on supporting.

As stated above, different from richer and more developed countries, Afghanistan needs support in achieving almost all the SDGs. Only for 2 goals, such support initially seems somewhat less relevant – as Afghanistan is landlocked, the protection of oceans is not an issue for the country (though of course rivers and lakes also need to be protected) while responsible consumption and production currently seems almost a “luxury” concern given the dire situation of the Afghan economy.
With regard to the SDGs that StayIN is focusing on, the table clearly shows that it is not our goal to actively support all goals – this would mean spreading our resources too far. Instead, our focus is particularly on goal 4 – the provision of quality education. However, by aiming to provide such quality education to both poor and rich people, to both males and females, our work will also reduce inequalities (goal 10) and promote gender equality (goal 5). Furthermore, the education we aim to provide is linked to economic benefits – we focus on education that directly leads to better economic conditions. As a consequence, the StayIN work also promotes economic growth (goal 8) and supports the development of industry, innovation and infrastructure (goal 9). The latter is reflected in our project related to industrial education (introduction of a dual educational system in Afghanistan).
Of course, the StayIN focus on one SDG (with the associated positive effects on four other goals) does not mean that we think the other 12 goals are not important. We just feel that it is better to focus on our core strength – providing high-quality education based on the strong relevant background of our members.
Originally posted 2024-03-16 17:46:37.