The original English version marked the launch of PaRD and was designed to give an insight into how religious and indigenous traditions from all over the world understand sustainable development and contribute to it. Just over a year ago, BMZ published the english version of the book online and has reached an increasingly global audience through PaRD. To that end, further steps were taken: The book was published not only in English, but also in German and Chinese (available only in print). Taking the next step in early 2018, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) supported the PaRD secretariat in translating the book into French, which is now available for free online through www.pard.international.
Since August 2018, the book is available in four languages: English, Chinese, German, and French.
In the book, more than 25 inspiring followers, theologians, practitioners and academics from the Bahá’í Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Indigenous traditions, Islam, Judaism, and the Sikh Religion share their spiritual and religious insights on the five dimensions of the new Agenda 2030: Planet, People, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership. Without claiming any form of representative authority, their authentic contributions increase our knowledge of religions and describe how religious actors promote development. The book demonstrates that common spiritual values are at the heart of all religious and indigenous traditions – and that bringing these virtues to life can contribute to overcoming environmental destruction, poverty, forced migration, corruption, terror, discrimination and injustice.
The authors give cause for optimism that the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 signed by 193 nations at the United Nations in September 2015 can be achieved through a conscious individual and collective effort – provided we ourselves are willing to change in the first place.
