Marian Wright Edelman notes that the measure of our success is how we care for our children – all of the children of the world. This image has been life defining for me since I first read her book The Measure of our Success: A letter to My Children and Yours some 20 years ago. How do we care for our children? It was a question that rang through my head all day Monday while we were in class.
As Dr. Ed Laurence spoke about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), I kept thinking about the children whose lives would be impacted in positive ways if we could live into the goals that they set out. Can we make it so that globally we have 1) No Poverty 2) Zero Hunger 3) Good Health and Well-being 4) Quality Education and 5) Gender Equality by 2030? These are only the first five of the 17 SDG’s. Making strides on each one of these would positively impact the lives of children everywhere. Addressing these goals will help to address not only individual human need, but it will also address some of the root causes of conflict. As John Burton notes, the needs which we all have for identity, security and recognition are key. I believe having access to food, healthcare and education for example, are all excellent building blocks toward the meeting of these needs.
Dr. Laurence also noted that one of the things that can hinder development success in some areas is the reality of conflict. While a development idea may be a good idea, when there is conflict in the region, implementing and continuing these programs can be challenging. Our work as peacebuilders is vital if we are serious about the SDG’s. It’s vital if we care about our children.
Ed Laurance referenced Robert Putnam’s excellent book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community and the reality that there is a decline in neighborhood organizations in the United States. Putnam’s new book, Our Kids, The American Dream in Crisis, looks specifically at how the class-based opportunity gap is growing larger for young people. Dr. Laurance talked about his work with Cure Violence in Chicago, an on the ground program designed to impact the lives of young people in parts of Chicago known for violence. This work is relational and changes the lives of young people surrounded by the chaos that violence creates. The “call in” program offers local care and compassion for young people who are surrounded by negative role models. The “call in” offers a local life-line to help.
I found Dr. Laurance inspiring because he is not only a gifted teacher and a scholar working to empower development globally, but he is also a local practitioner. He is someone well versed in the research data on important development work and statistical data such as the Human Development Index, the Fragile State Index and the Global Peace Index. And, he takes his passion into his local context and uses his gifts to impact his local context as well. I am inspired by this model and hope to use my gifts to inform global conversations of healing and reconciliation, while as supporting and empowering my local community in the same.
