Translations:Course-v1:edz+11+2023 SP/en/block-v1:edz+11+2023 SP+type@html+block@6b32ef0d4781481280d7c884ca4ae1f3/content/en
When the Wikimedia Movement strategy proposed that we <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations/Identify_Topics_for_Impact" style="text-decoration: none;">focus on Topics for Impact</a>, it laid out several ambitious priorities. Here is the recommendation:
“ The strategic direction sets out the need to develop and increase access to content that has historically been left out by structures of power and privilege. Alongside this, there are other areas that are likely to have high impact – for instance, content on major topics regarding humanity and its future, such as the [United Nations] Sustainable Development Goals.”
For the Wikimedia movement to address topics for impact in the recommendation, there are two big areas of work: addressing the most marginalized knowledge and addressing the knowledge that is important for the future of humanity.
Since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were top of mind when writing the Wikimedia Movement Strategy recommendations, they are also a useful place to test, examine and reflect on how and why we can use external knowledge frameworks to identify knowledge gaps.
What are the SDGS?
<img src="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/english_SDG_17goals_poster_all_languages_with_UN_emblem_1.png" alt="Photo: The Sustainable Development Goals: 17 Goals to Transform Our World" />
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGS are a framework supported by the UN to help with focus and measure international development. Their wide reach means that it is a helpful framework for exploring certain topic areas.
The SDGs are 17 international goals, created by the Action 2030 framework adopted by the United Nations. Like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals" target="[object Object]">Millennium Development Goals</a> before them, they provide a powerful tool and framework for both measuring and prioritizing investments by the international development community. The SDGs aren’t perfect, but their focus on finding economic prosperity for all while protecting the planet and creating greater social equality, provides an ambitious framework for action across multiple kinds of actors.
Because the SDGs are some of the best funded, globally-scoped priorities across society -- that also means that there are huge bodies of knowledge from international agencies, national governments and a variety of non-state actors. This diverse body of knowledge, means that in most geographic contexts: there is at least some research focused on, responding to and using the language or framework of analysis found in the Sustainable Development Goals.