In his opening remarks at the Annual Forum on Religion and Sustainable Development 2024 in Brasilia, Khushwant Singh, the PaRD Head of Secretariat, underscored the importance of global cooperation, incorporating spiritual and Indigenous actors, alongside a transformational change in attitudes to address inequality, environmental destruction, violence, while urging decisive action to achieve the SDGs and holistic well-being.
Uma recepção calorosa!
Dear excellences, colleagues, and friends.
A warm welcome to all of you!
It is indeed an honour to speak here and to have had the privilege to co-organize this gathering together with the IF20 team and several other supporting partners. Thanks to all who made this gathering possible! I am also very grateful to all those who are and have been supporting PaRD –the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development – over the past years. I am especially grateful to the German government, BMZ for providing core funding for PaRD.
It is my first time in Latin America. I was in Rio before coming to Brasilia. The friendliness, the respect I received here in this country, the beauty of nature, the diversity of people – all this has been amazing and wonderful. Thank you!
Let me tell you: If I am offered Brazilian citizenship, I would go for it. We have ministers and high-ranking government representatives here. I hope you will like this gathering and the work being done by the many stakeholders present today. Hopefully, you will be so impressed that it might also help me in getting Brazilian citizenship. But beyond that, I truly hope this gathering inspires you to take even more action for the well-being of the planet and its people.
Brazil has a very diverse population, and while such a vast country faces many challenges, today we focus on its potentials and solutions. Brazil is home to Indigenous Communities and vital ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest – both of which are not only important to Brazil but to the world. The Amazon is one of the planet’s lungs, essential for the well-being of Mother Earth. Indigenous wisdom can help us to live a more balanced and frugal life in tune with nature. As we gather here today, it is clear that being attentive to this wisdom is more urgent than ever.
90% of Brazilians say they are religious.
8 out of 10 people worldwide affiliate with a religious tradition.
If we were to live the potential of our spirituality fully – at home, in business, and in politics, we would intuitively not only speak but work for the well-being of nature, humans and animals. We would change course intuitively.
Imagine 8 out of 10 people change course.
This room is filled with people of goodwill.
Imagine 8 out of 10 people in this room and those joining online change course today!
We are here to remind us of the urgency of the situation.
The world is in turmoil. We face staggering inequality and ongoing conflicts, all exacerbated by unsustainable practices. While nearly half of the world’s wealth is held by these richest one percent, 1.1 billion people, nearly 20% of the world population, live in acute poverty across 110 countries. There are far over 100 armed conflicts and more than 100 million refugees worldwide. The rates of depression, stress, burn-out and loneliness are globally on the rise. Rarely do we reflect upon the root causes of all this. But in this conference, we will do this.
The new Sustainable Development Report 2024 shows: We are off track. We are completely off track. This includes crucial topics like poverty and hunger. Only 16 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets are going to be met as of now. The report says that global challenges require global cooperation and more multilateralism.
This is true. But it is also true that we can only achieve the SDGs with civil society and not without it. This includes religious and Indigenous actors. This includes providing funding for civil society. This includes being more attentive to ethical considerations. This includes a transformational shift in our values and attitudes. This includes realising that weapons alone can never solve a problem sustainably.
And that is why we gathered here under the theme: “Leave No One Behind: The Well-Being of the Planet and Its People.” We are here to strengthen collaboration among all key entities, including religious and Indigenous actors. We are here to contribute to the G20 theme: “Building a just world and a sustainable planet”.
We in PaRD bring together governments, multilateral entities, academia, religious and other civil society actors on a long-term basis to amplify contributions to the (SDGs and make them visible at a global level. PaRD facilitates Workstreams and Taskforces and offers a safe space for its 170 global members, providing continuity for global dialogue, learning, sharing of good practices and evidence, and collaboration to better inform policy and practices through recommendations and practitioners guidelines. Our members work throughout the year in Workstreams on environmental protection, Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB), food security, gender, health, also mental health, peace, and other issues relevant to the SDGs.
If you have not been involved in PaRD, I kindly invite you to consider joining our multistakeholder partnership. I especially invite the Brazilian government representatives to get to know PaRD better – and consider joining it if you see the same added value as we see in it. For instance, PaRD could support the Task Force for a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty which was proposed by Brazil’s G20 presidency. The representatives the Indonesian government present here, who joined PaRD around two years ago, told me they are open to talk to other governments about their experiences in PaRD and the value they see in it. PaRD membership is free of cost. We just need one dedicated person to work with us whose portfolio includes SDGs, civil society engagement or multistakeholder partnerships. We are looking forward to having exchanges with many of you, also the government representatives.
Let me conclude with this.
Above all, spirituality universally reminds us to take seriously our role as guests on this wonderful blue planet. In Gurmat, timeless spiritual wisdom, the Wise Ones remind us of this repeatedly:
ਵਾਟ ਨ ਕਰਈ ਮਾਮਲਾ ਜਾਣੈ ਮਿਹਮਾਣੁ ॥ GGS, 148, M.2
Guests behave respectfully.
Guests honour the host.
Guests do not destroy the place they are visiting during their stay.
So let us be reminded in all our discussions – also in policy talk:
We are just humble guests who are trying their best to finding solutions while on a temporal journey.
We will share state of the art knowledge in this conference. We will share promising practices. We will hear policy recommendations. But we will also listen to ideas on how to overcome linear and growth-based thinking, for instance in our panel on holistic well-being.
I will close with Paulo Coelho. I just reread his wonderful book “The Alchemist”, where he says: “It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise people are able to understand them.” It is in our hands to decide how we will be remembered: as wise and humble guests who nourished the well-being of all sentient beings, including Mother Earth, or as a harmful species.
I wish us not only inspiring dialogues, but a firm commitment to concrete action – honouring the recommendations you will put forward!
Desejo a todos nós diálogos inspiradores!
