Commission on Voluntary Service & Action

Making the 2030 SDGs a Reality
in the United States

A report from

Commission on Voluntary Service & Action, Inc

for the

2022 High Level Political Forum

on Sustainable Developmental

Summary

Commission on Voluntary Service and Action (CVSA) launched an all volunteer-run nationwide Community Education Campaign for the Implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the United States, where CVSA is based, on International Volunteer Day December 5, 2016.

CVSA continues building this campaign through direct contact with hundreds of volunteer service organizations in communities across the country, as well as school classrooms, church congregations, staff of small businesses and professional associations, providing education and localized organizing tools for the SDGs to be made a reality in the U.S.

This Campaign acts in solidarity with people of all nations, aware that as long as the government of one of the most powerful and wealthy countries in the world does not actually engage in the process agreed to in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and does not enact the policy changes and priorities necessary for the full implementation of the SDGs domestically, then the suffering of working and disenfranchised people of the United States and all others in the world will continue to grow, global progress is held back and we will fail to achieve the 2030 global commitment that humanity cannot live without.

CVSA is a consultative and coordinating body of nongovernmental voluntary service organizations based primarily in North America as well as around the world, founded in 1945 to promote, coordinate and extend the field of independent voluntary service and action programs serving people and communities in need of systemic solutions to economic, social and environmental problems worldwide. CVSA holds Special NGO Consultative Status to ECOSOC since 2013. CVSA’s staff is entirely volunteer. CVSA member organizations are independent organizations that address the needs of those suffering poverty, lack of access to health care, legal justice, affordable housing, clean affordable energy and water, decent employment, and who are living in communities most effected by industrial pollution, toxic contamination and global warming, and more, through the participation of volunteers. They are described in CVSA’s cornerstone publication, INVEST YOURSELF: A Guide to Action, the catalogue of volunteer opportunities.

None of these organizations can solve these systemic problems themselves, but, through working together, along with other stakeholders and through a “whole of society” approach, we can we build the power to address the root causes and win the transformative policy and governing changes that can accomplish the Goals. The grass roots leadership that continues to rise and is developed through the struggles of these organizations is the source of our hope and commitment to achieve this goal.

In the United States, economic losses due to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused unprecedented hunger, increased poverty, loss of access to education and the deaths of over one million people to date. Throughout the pandemic, CVSA member organizations have reported injustices of extreme economic inequality and racial and social discrimination of many kinds. The burden of organizing aid and relief for the millions in need has largely fallen upon non-profits, volunteer associations and organically grown self-help mutual aid organizations resulting from a noticeable absence of federal coordination and relief.

With official U.S. policy still perpetuating unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases (despite the promises otherwise and the acknowledgement of the 1.5 degree limit warning) and in the absence of officially empowered federal bodies established to involve all stakeholders in planning, implementing and monitoring the implementation of the Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Goals in the United States, Commission on Voluntary Service and Action reaffirms its commitment to:

Build the necessary groundswell of support for and participation in the implementation of the SDGs at local levels across the country until the nation’s political leadership materially prioritizes the SDGs as policy, in cooperation with all other nations;

Mobilize increased volunteer involvement with organizations internationally and in the United States to tackle the needs of people, strive for solutions to these problems and to assist them in building partnerships with businesses, academic institutions and faith-based groups to work together for the achievement of the SDGs.

This report provides a snapshot of what some CVSA member organizations are doing consistent with Goals 4, 5, 12 and 15, which are being reviewed in the 2022 HLPF, and what they say is needed to achieve these Goals. This is also a call to action for more organizations and volunteers to join us in this campaign to make the 2030 SDGs a reality in the United States as well as the rest of the world.

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