An important part of the United Nations’ development agenda is the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will establish a framework for advancing development priorities beyond 2015. Some key differences between the two sets of goals include:



​

• Focus of goals: The SDGs are designed to be more universal, comprehensive and inclusive bring new focuses such as human rights and good governance, income inequality within countries and participatory decision-making processes.
• Zero-goals: Unlike the MDGs, which were designed to get us halfway, the SDGs are intended to bring hunger, poverty, preventable child deaths and other goals to a statistical zero.
• Funding: As opposed to MDG aid flows, which did not materialize as envisioned, SDGs rely on sustainable economic development within countries to address social challenges.
• Peace-building: The SDGs are broadening the scope to include peace-building, which is now seen as linked closely to eradicating extreme poverty.
• Data: Where the MGDs did not address monitoring, evaluation or accountability, the SDGs aim to collect quality nation-specific data in a number of categories by 2020.
• Education: By focusing on quality education instead of quantity, the SDGs aim to increase participation and efficacy, especially for young people.

The SDGs and the UN’s development agenda are tied closely to GHR’s funding goals and priorities, especially the Inter-Religious Action and Children In Families Initiatives. To learn more about how GHR is working towards the Sustainable Development Goals, contact us.

GHR Foundation’s Catholic Schools Initiative is working to strengthen urban schools in the Twin Cities. Recently, Fordham Institute’s Chester E. Finn, Jr. presented a hypothetical plan for resuscitating Catholic Schools in the United States.  This plan focuses on:   

1. Data: Gathering data on which schools to expand, repair or close. Analyzing the data and presenting it to the public. Using state standards and measurements alongside methods more tailored to Catholic schools to determine priorities. 
2. Network: Working harder on networking between schools and replicating good schools rather than salvaging old schools. Many struggling schools lack systematic curriculum, instructional models, achievement and data, and will not receive the overhaul they need without the expertise and resources that come with networking.
3. Modernize: Bringing modernization beyond governance and business management to identifying cost savings, updating staff structures and making school more engaging. Individualization techniques like blended learning should be implemented more widely, as well as countless more emerging non-traditional and modern classroom structures.
4. Public Policy: Finding ways of engaging more successfully with public policy, including amending state charter laws and promoting religious charter schools.
5. Quality: Recognizing that fewer people are sending their children to Catholic schools simply because they’re Catholic. Using data to provide reliable, transparent evidence of academic achievement, discipline, character, good behavior, safety and caring adults.

GHR Foundation is dedicated to supporting innovative approaches in the schools we fund, and found these recommendations worth discussing as we continue to evolve partnerships with Twin Cities Catholic schools.