The extraordinary opportunity of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development

We live in extraordinary times, when the challenges we face may seem overwhelming, when a dark view of our common future can too easily grip our imaginations. Bigotry, racism, and xenophobia beguile easily. A fraying of social cohesion tears at the fabric of countries around the world, manifesting its worst in the form of extremism and protracted violence. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals years ago by world leaders in New York was a watershed moment in development discourse, charting a trajectory to a shared future for people and planet that breaks markedly from the damaging norms and trends of the past.