The United Nations is an international organisation founded in 1945. Currently made up of 193 Member States, the UN and its work are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter.

The UN has evolved over the years to keep pace with a rapidly changing world. But one thing has stayed the same: it remains the one place on Earth where all the world’s nations can gather together, discuss common problems, and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity.

The UN has 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets.

General Assembly *resolution, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, in which for the first time the Assembly recognised children and youth as agents of change, and recognising that the Sustainable Development Goals are integrated, indivisible and global in nature,             and therefore that all of them apply to youth. The goals came into effect on the 1st January 2016 with the target year 2030. 

 (*resolution 70/1 of 25 September 2015)

Peace Child International is a UK based charity focusing on youth entrepreneurship, employability, sustainable development and youth empowerment. Peace Child International began during the Cold War as a musical, based on Bernard Benson’s The Peace Book, aimed at resolving conflict between the United States and USSR, and at bringing youth from both countries into contact. The first performance was in October 1981 at the Royal Albert Hall, with Susannah York as the narrator. The musical was then taken to the United States, where it was premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in December 1982. The core of the musical was composed by David Gordon and written by David Woollcombe, but it was re-written and customised by the cast wherever it was performed. Since its debut the musical has been used in conflict resolution efforts in Azerbaijan and Armenia, Central America, Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, India, Israel and Northern Ireland. After the Earth Summit in June 1992, Peace Child produced a children’s version of Agenda 21, Rescue Mission: Planet Earth. The book was designed, edited and aimed at young people and went on to be translated into 23 languages. Since this point, Peace Child has focused mainly on sustainable development issues, and produced a number of further publications on the subject with UN agencies. Peace Child has also shifted its focus to an emphasis on youth unemployment, developing a number of training programmes in Europe, Africa and India to increase employability skills in young people.

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere  

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture 

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all 

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation