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Global Integration Update -- October 2016
Common Ground for the Common Good
Global Grids
New Strategies for Staying Informed
Applications for the SDGs
Overview
In this Update we present a versatile framework (GI Grid) to help you stay updated with core information relevant for your work, understanding of the world ,and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The framework is organized into two parts: context resources (global, multi-sectoral) and core resources (global, personal emphases).
We have included two examples to help guide the creation of your own GI grid. The first example comes from the recent article we did on staying current with global mental health (GMH) knowledge and resources. The second example is an individualized template that you can adjust and fill in according to your interests and involvements. For more ideas on areas to include in your GI grid, see the December 2015 GI Update, Staying Current—Navigating the News.
Actively integrating our lives with global realities
by connecting relationally and contributing relevantly
on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity,
in light of our integrity and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, faith-based).
We resolve to build a better future for all people, including the millions who have been denied the chance to lead decent, dignified and rewarding lives and to achieve their full human potential…."We the Peoples" are the celebrated opening words of the UN Charter. It is "We the Peoples" who are embarking today on the road to 2030. Our journey will involve Governments as well as Parliaments, the UN system and other international institutions, local authorities, indigenous peoples, civil society, business and the private sector, the scientific and academic community – and all people. Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, United Nations (2015, Excerpts from Paragraphs 50 and 52)
Part One
Getting a Grid
An Example for Global Mental Health (GMH)
 The above grid is part of our efforts to map GMH developments and resources and then share them in concise and accessible ways (e.g. via training, publications, and ourGMH-Map website). It also reflects our GI commitment to encourage colleagues to collaborate across sectors and to identify new ways to leverage their skills, knowledge, interests, and character strengths on behalf of important issues like the SDGs
The grid is organized into two main sections. The first section, Context Resources (Global Multi-Sectoral--GMS), features seven representative reports on global issues. The second section, Core Resources (GMH), includes seven representative lists of GMH materials. The gird is intended for GMH colleagues at all levels of experience, ranging from students to seasoned professionals, as well as colleagues at all levels of experience in different sectors (e.g., health, development, humanitarian, business, civil society, governments). Think of it as a way to "promote mental health and well-being" as expressed in SDG 3.4 (the Core Resources section for GMH in the grid) in light of the "interlinkages and integrated nature" of all 17 SDGs (the Context Resources for GMS in the grid).
Part Two
Creating Your Grid
An Example for Global Personal Emphases (GPE)
This grid is designed as an orientation framework to facilitate your global understanding across sectors and to help you track with your areas of emphasis. It is organized into two main sections. The first section, Context Resources (Global Multi-Sectoral, GMS) features several representative reports on global issues. The second section, Core Resources (Global Personal Emphases, GPE) includes several representative categories that you can adjust and fill in based on your interests and involvements.
Colleagues can be both guided and goaded by their GI Grids via the specific context and core materials that they include. We think that the girds reflect the unfolding reality that ‘the context is crucial for the core’ – that is, understanding the global context (e.g. the 17 SDGs) is essential for working effectively in one’s core emphasis be it a discipline, organization, sector, country, specific issue, or an individual SDG or SDG Target(s).
We also note that both the reports and the materials listed in this section, many of which are available online in multiple languages, are just a sampling among the many excellent items that are available (see some examples below). We encourage you to read the overviews/summaries and more if possible as well as to identify the main newsletters-updates from each sector that interest you. We have gone over many of the multi-sectoral reports--often along with several colleagues--in order to consider their serious implications for our world, our work, and our personal lives (example, via our Trio Gatherings).
Recent Examples of GMS Materials
--Progress Towards the SDGs (July 2016) United Nations
--World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends (2016) World Bank.
-- Regional Human Development Report 2016: Africa (2016) UNDP
Education-Learning
Gyeongju Action Plan: Education for Global Citizenship: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Together (2016) UN Department of Public Information/Non-Government Organizations .
Environment
Global Nutrition Report 2016: From Promise to Impact: Ending Malnutrition by 2030(2016) International Food Policy Research Institute.
Human Rights
World Report 2016: Our Annual Review of Human Rights Around the Globe (2016) Human Rights Watch.
Peace-Security
Global Peace Index 2016 (2016) Institute for Economics and Peace.
Personal Reflections
Kelly and Michele
This Update is adapted from the recent article we did on sharing and synthesizing GMH knowledge for sustainable development (21 September 2016, Global Mental Health). We encourage you to download it and pass it on!
Strategic knowledge sharing and synthesis supports civil society’s increasing, informed involvements in global affairs and, in particular, with the United Nations agenda for sustainable development. Tracking with such knowledge though is a growing challenge, given the massive amounts of materials coming all our way. We thus encourage colleagues to proactively create a strategy for staying informed vs primarily reacting to information that comes one's way seemingly on its own.
We think the sample GI grid in this Update can help. Global Integrators will thus be better able to engage in informed, skilled, and coordinated responses to make the world a better place. We also go one step further beyond the more pragmatic function of the grid: we see the grid as a moral and political tool to help us responsibly fulfil our responsibilities as global citizens. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declares in his important synthesis report en route to the adoption of the SDGs: ( The Road to Dignity by 2030, December 2014):
Our globalized world is marked by extraordinary progress alongside unacceptable – and unsustainable – levels of want, fear, discrimination, exploitation, injustice and environmental folly at all levels…. These are universal challenges. They demand new levels of multilateral action, based on evidence and built on shared values, principles and priorities for a common destiny…. None of today’s threats respect boundaries drawn by human beings, whether those boundaries are national borders or boundaries of class, ability, age, gender, geography, ethnicity or religion…. I urge Governments and people everywhere to fulfill their political and moral responsibilities. This is my call to dignity, and we must respond with all our vision and strength. (excerpts from paragraphs 11, 14, 15, 25).
(includes a translation tool into several languages)
Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit organisation working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations in the mission, humanitarian, and development sectors as well as global mental health, all with a view towards supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, developing resources, and publications. MCA is a member of the Movement for Global Mental Health and the NGO Forum for Health.
Actively integrating our lives with global realities
by connecting relationally and contributing relevantly
on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity,
in light of our integrity and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, faith-based).
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The GI Updates are designed to help shape and support the emerging diversity of global integrators who as learners-practitioners are committed to the "common ground for the common good." The image at the top of the Update (global pearl) is a cover detail form Global Member Care (volume 2): Crossing Sectors for Serving Humanity (2013). William Carey Library.
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