Workshop: Sustainable Development Goals through the lens of the child

The Centre for Sustainable Development Studies were part of a Geary Institute for Public Policy and Department of Children and Youth Affairs organised workshop on the Sustainable Development Goals through the lens of the child on 9th November 2018. Prof Patrick Paul Walsh, Prof Enda Murphy, Dr Aparajita Banarjee, Caitriona Devery and Charlotte Thumser were part of the organising team.

The workshop was convened by Minister for Children Katherine Zappone. It was attended by senior officials from the Department of the Taoiseach, the Economic and Social Research Institute, civil society and academia. Keynote speaker, Prof Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN secretary general on SDGs.

Almost one in every five children in Ireland lives below the poverty line and children carry a higher risk of poverty than any other age group. One in four children experiences enforced deprivation, and children carry a higher risk of deprivation than any other age group. One in every 10 children lives in consistent poverty – experiencing both income poverty and deprivation – and again the risk of consistent poverty is higher for children than any other age group. Minister Zappone called for a cross-departmental approach to the issue.

Prof Sachs reminds us “A market system produces wealth but it does not produce social justice . . . The the desire for wealth. It has to be tempered by the demands of morality, ethics.”

Read the Minister’s speech here.