PERSPECTIVE| FES NEW YORK How to Achieve Sustainable Peace The Radical Potential of Implementing„ UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 SARAH HEARN June 2016 „ „ The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), in particular SDG 16, offer a set of potentially radical solutions to billions of people’s fears and insecuri­ties by articulating a people-centered agenda for sustainable peace. Achieving them, however, will require a significant change in mind-sets and approaches along with global and local action. „ „ SDG 16 will only be achieved with political leadership from governments and socie­ties. It cannot be relegated to technical development projects. At the universal level, the UN can identify norm and implementation entrepreneurs who have devised solu­tions for achieving SDG 16 and related goals. The UN can also instigate government­to-government and society-to-society cooperation, convene global partnerships for SDG 16, and fill crucial gaps in partnerships to address the dark side of globaliza­tion. To make the UN fit for peace, institutional reform must take priority, as must upstream analysis and prevention, and greater investment in the resilience of com­munities. „ „ Leaving no-one behind will require the international community to keep to its com­mitments to the poorest and most conflict-affected countries. The g7+ and other Least Developed Countries should be in the driver’s seat, leading a revamped and more inclusive global partnership for leaving no country behind under SDG 17. „ „ This perspective piece offers ideas on a roadmap for implementing SDG 16 that could be discussed by the UN High-Level Political Forum and the Economic and So­cial Council in 2016, and revisited in 2019.