Dr.

Vishwanath Karad

MIT WORLD PEACE

UNIVERSITY | PUNE
TECHNOLOGY, RESEARCH, SOCIAL INNOVATION &
PARTNERSHIPS

Four Decades of Educational Excellence

FACULTY OF PEACE STUDIES
Study Material
UPS2006A / UPS6006A
Humanities, Ethical,
Moral and Social Sciences

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From the founders…

Prof. Dr. Vishwanath D. Karad

"I believe that peace would be established in the society through value based
‘UNIVERSAL EDUCATION SYSTEM’ which, inspires to give back to the society."

Mr. Rahul V. Karad

"With the synergy of academia with technology, technology with research, research with industry,
industry with economy, economy with social innovation and social innovation with Peace, we are
committed to make MIT-WPU a world class space of intellectual excellence, where reason and
rationality reigns, humanism rules, and learning becomes a great adventure. With this vision, the
peace component in the curriculum and yoga practices have been quite thoughtfully added to the
credit system."

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Index

1. Introduction to Humanities 2

2. History of Humanities 6

3. Humanistic theories and practices 7

4. Business Ethics: An Overview Introduction 8

5. Personal Ethics 9

6. Evolution of Ethics 15

7. Importance of Business Ethics 21

8. Corporate Governance Ethics 28

9. Ethical Organizations & Value System 34-35

10. Moral Science & Education 39-40

11. Story Telling 42

12. United Nation‘s 17 Sustainable Development Goals: 46

13. Sustainable Development Goals 47

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Introduction to Humanities

Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the
Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the
main area of secular study in universities at the time.

Today, the humanities are more frequently contrasted with natural, and
sometimes social sciences, as well as professional training.

The humanities use methods that are primarily critical, or speculative, and have a significant
historical elements distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences,
yet, unlike the sciences, it has no central discipline. The humanities include ancient and modern
languages, literature, philosophy, history, human geography, law, politics, religion, and art.
Scholars in the humanities are "humanity scholars" or humanists.

The term "humanist" also describes the philosophical position of humanism, which some "anti
humanist" scholars in the humanities reject.

The Renaissance scholars and artists were also called humanists. Some secondary schools offer
humanities classes usually consisting of literature, global studies and art.

Human disciplines like history, folk logistics, and cultural anthropology study subject matters
that the manipulative experimental method does not apply to—and instead mainly use the
comparative method and comparative research.

Anthropology is the holistic "science of humans", a science of the totality of human existence.

The discipline deals with the integration of different aspects of the social sciences, humanities
and human biology. In the twentieth century, academic disciplines have often been institutionally
divided into three broad domains. The natural sciences seek to derive general laws through
reproducible and verifiable experiments.

The humanities generally study local traditions, through their history, literature, music, and
arts, with an emphasis on understanding particular individuals, events, or eras.
The social sciences have generally attempted to develop scientific methods to understand
social phenomena in a generalizable way, though usually with methods distinct from those
of the natural sciences.

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The anthropological social sciences often develop nuanced descriptions rather than the general
laws derived in physics or chemistry, or they may explain individual cases through more general
principles, as in many fields of psychology. Anthropology (like some fields of history) does not
easily fit into one of these categories, and different branches of anthropology draw on one or
more of these domains. Within the United States, anthropology is divided into four sub-fields:
archaeology, physical or biological anthropology, anthropological linguistics, and cultural
anthropology. It is an area that is offered at most undergraduate institutions.

The word anthropos is from the Greek for "human being" or "person".

Eric Wolf described sociocultural anthropology as "the most scientific of the humanities, and the
most humanistic of the sciences".

The goal of anthropology is to provide a holistic account of humans and human nature. This
means that, though anthropologists generally specialize in only one sub-field, they always keep
in mind the biological, linguistic, historic and cultural aspects of any problem. Since
anthropology arose as a science in Western societies that were complex and industrial, a major
trend within anthropology has been a methodological drive to study peoples in societies with
more simple social organization, sometimes called "primitive" in anthropological literature, but
without any connotation of "inferior".

Today, anthropologists use terms such as "less complex" societies, or refer to specific modes of
subsistence or production, such as "pastoralist" or "forager" or "horticulturalist", to discuss
humans living in non-industrial, non-Western cultures, such people or folk (ethnos) remaining of
great interest within anthropology.

The quest for holism leads most anthropologists to study a people in detail, using biogenetic,
archaeological, and linguistic data alongside direct observation of contemporary customs. In the
1990s and 2000s, calls for clarification of what constitutes a culture, of how an observer knows
where his or her own culture ends and another begins, and other crucial topics in writing
anthropology were heard. It is possible to view all human cultures as part of one large, evolving
global culture. These dynamic relationships, between what can be observed on the ground, as
opposed to what can be observed by compiling many local observations remain fundamental in
any kind of anthropology, whether cultural, biological, linguistic or archaeological.

History is systematically collected information about the past. When used as the name of a
field of study, history refers to the study and interpretation of the record of humans, societies,
institutions, and any topic that has changed over time.
Traditionally, the study of history has been considered a part of the humanities. In
modern academia, history is occasionally classified as a social science.

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Linguistics and languages:

While the scientific study of language is known as linguistics and is generally considered a social
science, a natural science or a cognitive science, the study of languages is still central to the
humanities. A good deal of twentieth-century and twenty-first-century philosophy has been
devoted to the analysis of language and to the question of whether, as Wittgenstein claimed,
many of our philosophical confusions derive from the vocabulary we use; literary theory has
explored the rhetorical, associative, and ordering features of language; and historical linguists
have studied the development of languages across time. Literature, covering a variety of uses of
language including prose forms (such as the novel), poetry and drama, also lies at the heart of
the modern humanities curriculum. College-level programs in a foreign language usually include
study of important works of the literature in that language, as well as the language itself.

Law:
In common parlance, law means a rule that (unlike a rule of ethics) is enforceable through
institutions. The study of law crosses the boundaries between the social sciences and
humanities, depending on one's view of research into its objectives and effects. Law is not
always enforceable, especially in the international relations context. It has been defined as a
"system of rules", as an "interpretive concept" to achieve justice, as an "authority" to mediate
people's interests, and even as "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a
sanction". However one likes to think of law, it is a completely central social institution. Legal
policy incorporates the practical manifestation of thinking from almost every social science and
discipline of the humanities. Laws are politics, because politicians create them. Law is
philosophy, because moral and ethical persuasions shape their ideas. Law tells many of history's
stories, because statutes, case law and codifications build up over time. And law is economics,
because any rule about contract, tort, property law, labour law, company law and many more
can have long-lasting effects on how productivity is organised and the distribution of wealth.
The noun Law derives from the late Old English lagu, meaning something laid down or fixed,
and the adjective legal comes from the Latin word LEX.
Philosophy—etymologically, the "love of wisdom"—is generally the study of problems
concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, justification, truth, justice, right and wrong,
beauty, validity, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of
addressing these issues by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on
reasoned argument, rather than experiments (experimental philosophy being an exception).
Philosophy used to be a very comprehensive term, including what have subsequently become
separate disciplines, such as physics. (As Immanuel Kant noted, "Ancient Greek philosophy was
divided into three sciences: physics, ethics, and logic.") Today, the main fields of philosophy are
logic, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. Still, it continues to overlap with other disciplines.
The field of semantics, for example, brings philosophy into contact with linguistics.
Since the early twentieth century, philosophy in English-speaking universities has moved away
from the humanities and closer to the formal sciences, becoming much more analytic.
Analytic philosophy is marked by emphasis on the use of logic and formal methods of
reasoning, conceptual analysis, and the use of symbolic and/or mathematical logic, as
contrasted with the Continental style of philosophy.
This method of inquiry is largely indebted to the work of philosophers such as Gottlob Frege,
Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
4 Hegel and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Origin of the term.
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The word "humanities" is derived from the Renaissance Latin expression studia humanitatis, or
"study of humanitas" (a classical Latin word meaning—in addition to "humanity"—"culture,
refinement, education" and, specifically, an "education befitting a cultivated man").

In its usage in the early 15th century, the studia humanitatis was a course of studies that
consisted of grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy, primarily derived from the
study of Latin and Greek classics.

The word humanitas also gave rise to the Renaissance Italian neologism umanisti, whence
"humanist", "Renaissance humanism".

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History

In the West, the study of the humanities can be traced to ancient Greece, as the basis of a broad
education for citizens. During Roman times, the concept of the seven liberal arts evolved,
involving grammar, rhetoric and logic (the trivium), along with arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy and music (the quadrivium). These subjects formed the bulk of medieval education,
with the emphasis being on the humanities as skills or "ways of doing".

A major shift occurred with the Renaissance humanism of the fifteenth century, when the
humanities began to be regarded as subjects to study rather than practice, with a corresponding
shift away from traditional fields into areas such as literature and history.

In the 20th century, this view was in turn challenged by the postmodernist movement, which
sought to redefine the humanities in more egalitarian terms suitable for a democratic society
since the Greek and Roman societies in which the humanities originated were not at all
democratic. This was in keeping with the postmodernists' nuanced view of themselves as the
culmination of history.

Education and employment

For many decades, there has been a growing public perception that a humanities education
inadequately prepares graduates for employment. The common belief is that graduates from such
programs face underemployment and incomes too low for a humanities education to be worth the
investment.

Philosophical history
Citizenship and self-reflection

Since the late 19th century, a central justification for the humanities has been that it aids and
encourages self-reflection—a self-reflection that, in turn, helps develop personal consciousness
or an active sense of civic duty.

Wilhelm Dilthey and Hans-Georg Gadamer centered the humanities' attempt to distinguish
itself from the natural sciences in humankind's urge to understand its own experiences. This
understanding, they claimed, ties like-minded people from similar cultural backgrounds
together and provides a sense of cultural continuity with the philosophical past.
Scholars in the late 20th and early 21st centuries extended that "narrative imagination"to the
ability to understand the records of lived experiences outside of one's own individual social and
cultural context. Through that narrative imagination, it is claimed, humanities scholars and
students develop a conscience more suited to the multicultural world we live in. That conscience
might take the form of a passive one that allows more effective self-reflection or extend into
active empathy that facilitates the dispensation of civic duties a responsible world citizen must
engage in.

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There is disagreement, however, on the level of influence humanities study can have on an
individual and whether or not the understanding produced in humanistic enterprise can
guarantee an "identifiable positive effect on people."

Humanistic theories and practices:

There are three major branches of knowledge: natural sciences, social sciences, and the
humanities.

Technology is the practical extension of the natural sciences, as politics is the extension of the
social sciences. Similarly, the humanities have their own practical extension, sometimes called
"transformative humanities" (trans-humanities) or "culturonics" (Mikhail Epstein's term):

Nature – natural sciences – technology – transformation of nature

Society – social sciences – politics – transformation of society Culture –
human sciences – culturonics – transformation of culture

Technology, politics and culturonics are designed to transform what their respective
disciplines study: nature, society, and culture.

The field of transformative humanities includes various practices and technologies, for example,
language planning, the construction of new languages, like Esperanto, and invention of new
artistic and literary genres and movements in the genre of manifesto, like Romanticism,
Symbolism, or Surrealism. Humanistic invention in the sphere of culture, as a practice
complementary to scholarship, is an important aspect of the humanities.

Truth and meaning:

The divide between humanistic study and natural sciences informs arguments of meaning in
humanities as well. What distinguishes the humanities from the natural sciences is not a certain
subject matter, but rather the mode of approach to any question. Humanities focuses on
understanding meaning, purpose, and goals and furthers the appreciation of singular
historical and social phenomena—an interpretive method of finding "truth"—rather than
explaining the causality of events or uncovering the truth of the natural world Apart from its
societal application, narrative imagination is an important tool in the (re)production of
understood meaning in history, culture and literature.

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Business Ethics: An Overview

Introduction

The study of ethics has become an important ingredient of the syllabus of management schools
in recent years. This is because of ethical issues that have come to the forefront as a result of
many well-known failures of corporates. The fraudulent activities of these corporates have
resulted in the defrauding of stockholders, consumers, employees, creditors and governments to
varying degrees. It has therefore become important that students of B-schools as future manager
of business should imbibe ethical values. Ethics reflects a society's notions about the rightness or
wrongness of an act.

Ethics also involves the evaluation and application of certain moral values that a society or culture
has come to accept as its norms. It is generally described as a set of principles of moral conduct.
Business ethics, therefore, is a sum total of principles and code of conduct businessmen are
expected to follow in their dealing with their fellowmen such as stockholders, employees,
customers, creditors, and comply with to crack the laws of the land and to protect all these
stakeholders.

The word "ethics" is derived from the Greek word ethikos meaning custom or character. The
Concise Oxford Dictionary defines ethics as the treating of moral questions. But this definition is
imprecise and leaves a number of loose ends, whose morals? Which moral questions? Business
ethics covers diverse areas ranging from labour practices, free and fair trade, health
condoms, euthanasia to animal welfare, environmental concerns, to genetic modification,
to human cloning. Perhaps the definition provided by the Chambers Dictionary comes closest
to providing a workable definition "Ethics is a code of behavior considered correct. What the
society considers correct may have been arrived oy the crystallization of consumer pressure on
corporations and governments and regulatory forces. It is the science of morals describing a set
of rules of behavior. Business ethics itself is an offshoot of applied ethics. The study of
business ethics essentially deals with understanding what is right and morally good in
business.

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Ethics is a branch of philosophy and is considered a normative science because it is concerned

with the norms of human conduct, as distinguished from formal sciences such as mathematics
and logic, physical science such as chemistry and physics, and empirical sciences such as
economics and psychology. As a science ethics must follow the same rigors of logical reasoning
as other sciences. Ethics, as a science involves sys amazing, defending and recommending
concepts of right and wrong behavior.

The principles of ethical reasoning are useful tools for sorting out the good and bad components
within complex human interactions. For this reason, the study of ethics has been at the heart of
intellectual thought since the time of early Greek philosophers, and its ongoing contribution to
the advancement of knowledge and science makes ethics a relevant, if not vital, aspect of
management theory.

PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL ETHICS

Personal values are the conception of what an individual or group retards a desirable. Personal
ethics refer to the application of these values in everything coe does Personal ethics might also
be called mortality, since they reflect general expectations of any person in the society, acting in
any capacity. These are the principles we try to instil in our children, and export of one another
without needing to articulate the expectation or for make it in any way The principles of personal
ethics are

1. Concerns and respect for the autonomy of others.

2. Honesty and the willingness to comply with the law.
3. Fairness and the ability not to take undue advantage of others.
4. Benevolence and preventing harm to any creature.

People are motivated to be ethical for the following reason:

1. Most people want to maintain a clear conscience and would like to act ethically under
normal circumstances.
2. It is natural for people to ensure that their actions do not cause any injury, whether
physical or mental, to others.
3. People are obliged to obey the laws of the land.
4. Social and material well-being depends on one's ethical behaviour in society.

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PRINCIPLES OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

Profession is a vocation or calling. especially one that involves a specific branch of

advanced learning or a branch of science, for example, the profession of a doctor,
advocate, professor, scientist or business manager.

A professional is one who is engaged in a specified activity as we paid occupation like a salaried
business manager who is paid for his specific skill in managing the affairs of the business
enterprise he is engaged in. There are certain basic principles people are expected to follow in
their professional career. These are the

• impartiality objectivity
 openness: full disclosure
 confidentiality: trust;
 due diligence/duty of care;
 fidelity to professional responsibilities, and
 Avoiding potential or apparent conflict of interest.

WHAT IS BUSINESS ETHICS?

Ethics is a conception of right and wrong behavior, defining for us when our actions are moral
and when they are immoral. Business ethics, on the other hand, is the application of general
ethical ideas to business behavior. Ethical business behavior is expected by the public, it facilitates
and promotes good to society, improves profitability, fosters business relations and employee
productivity, reduces criminal penalties from public authorities and regulators, protects business
against unscrupulous employees and competitors, protects employees from harmful actions by
their employer, and allows people in business to act consistently with their personal ethical
beliefs. Ethical problems occur in business for many reasons, including the selfishness of a few,
competitive pressures on profits, the clash of personal values and business goals, and cross-
cultural contradictions in global business operations. Ethical issues, such as bribery and
corruption, are evident throughout the world, and many national governments and international
agencies are actively attempting to minimize such actions through economic sanctions and
international codes of ethical behavior. Although laws and ethics are closely related, they are not
the same: ethical principles tend to be broader than legal principles. Illegal behavior by business
and its employees imposes great costs on business itself and the society at large.

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To be precise, "Business ethics is the art and discipline of applying ethical principles to examine
and solve complex moral dilemmas" Business ethics proves that business has been and can be
and ethical and still make profits. Until the last decade, business ethics was thought of as being a
contradiction in terms. But things have changed today more and more interest is being shown to
the application of ethical practices in business dealings and the ethical implications of business
"Business ethics in that set of principles or reason which should govern the conduct of business
whether at the individual or collective level.

Ethical solutions to business problems may have more than one right answer or sometimes no
right answer at all. The local and ethical reasoning are tested in that particular business tuition. A
business or company is considered to be ethical only if it tries to catch a trade-off between its
economic objectives and its social obligations, such as obligations to the society where it exists
and operates; to its people for whom it pursues economic goals, to the environment, from where
it takes its resources, and the like.‖

Business ethics is based on the principle of integrity and fairness and concentrates on the
benefits to the it takes its resources and the likes Stakeholders, both internal and external.
Stakeholders includes those individuals and groups without which the organization does not
have an existence, It includes shareholders, creditors, employees, customers, dealers, vendors,
government and the society.

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WHAT IS NOT BUSINESS ETHICS?

It is also equally important to clarify what is not ethics.

ETHICS IS DIFFERENT FROM RELIGION

Though all religions preach high ethical moral standards generally, they do not address all the
types of problems people confront today. For instance, cyber-crimes and environment-related
issues are totally new in the context of most religions. Moreover, many persons today do not
subscribe to religious beliefs and have turned agnostic. But ethics applies to all people,
irrespective of their religious affiliation.

ETHICS Is Not SYNONYMOUS WITH LAW

Generally, a good legal system may incorporate many moral ethical standards. However, there are
several in stances where law deviates from what is ethical Legal systems may vary from society to
society depending upon its social, religious and cultural beliefs. For instance, the United States
law forbids companies from paying bribes either domestically or overseas, however, in other
parts of the world, bribery is an accepted way of doing business, Similar contradictions may be
seen in child labor, employee safety, work hours, wages, discrimination and environmental
protection laws. Law can be corrupted and debased by dictators and made to cater to serve
interests of narrow groups. Sometimes, law could be unreasonable and even stupid, as for
instance, it is illegal in Israel for a hen to lay an egg on a Friday or Saturday! (The Trends Team,
Times of India, Chennai, July 7th, 2008). It is also slow to respond to ethical needs of the society.
People are often skeptical about the objectives of any legal system and comment "Law is an Ass,"
while few people question ethical standards

ETHICAL STANDARDS ARE DIFFERENT FROM CULTURAL TRAITS

The English adage ‗When in Rome, do as the Romans do' leads to an unethical cultural behavior.
Some cultures may be ethical, but many of them are not. They may be quite oblivious to ethical
concerns. For instance, our system of castes reflects an unethical streak in as much as it tends to
take for granted that some people are superior to others in God's creation.

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ETHICS Is DIFFERENT FROM FEELINGS

Our ethical choices are based on our feelings. Most of us feel bad when we indulge in something
wrong but many, especially hardened criminals, may feel good even when they do something
bad. Most people when they do something wrong for the first time, may feel bad but if they find
it to be beneficial or if it brings them pleasure, they may make it a habit without feeling any
remorse.

ETHICS Is NOT A SCIENCE IN THE STRICTEST SENSE OF THE

TERM

We draw data from the sciences to enable us make ethical choices, But science is not prescriptive
and does not tell us what we ought to do in certain situations leading to ethical dilemmas. But
ethics being prescriptive offers reasons for how humans ought to act under such situations.
Moreover, just because something is scientifically or technologically possible, it may not be
ethical to do it; human cloning, for instance.

ETHICS Is Not JUST A COLLECTION OF VALUES

Values are almost oversimplifications, which rarely can be applied uniformly. Values tend to be
under defined, situational by nature and subject to flawed human reasoning such that by
themselves they cannot assure true ethical conduct. Consider the sought-after value of employee
loyalty, should employees be loyal to co-workers, supervisors, customers, or investors? Since it
may be impossible to be absolutely loyal to all the four simultaneously, in what order should
these loyalties occur? Employers who demand employee loyalty rarely can answer this question
completely or satisfactorily.

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CODE OF CONDUCT AND ETHICS FOR MANAGERS

Having gone through the definitions of what is and what is not ethics, let us see now how ethics
and values should form the bases of the code of conduct that ought to govern the behavior of
business managers. In the exercise of their duties and responsibilities, managers must observe
the following ethical values:

• Integrity: Integrity is the cornerstone of all values. A business manager should be

morally upright. It is this characteristic that distinguishes a professional manager from a
mercenary.
• Impartiality: A manager should look at and treat all aspects of an issue in a fair and
unprejudiced manner.
• Responsiveness to the Public Interest: Though a manager is paid to serve the interests
of the stock holders of the company, public interest is no less important. In- fact,
managers should consider it as of paramount importance, if they have to be successful
in their tasks.
• Accountability: Accountability is one of the basic characteristics of a good business
manager. Business managers are responsible for all their action and are accountable to
all the stakeholders-stockholders creditors, employees, consumers, government and
the society at large.
• Honesty: A cardinal ethical value that a manager should possess is this quality.
Managers should be fair, just and sincere both in character and behaviour. They
should not indulge in cheating or stealing and should be free of deceit and
untruthfulness.
• Transparency: Good business managers should be transparent and set standards for
others to follow. They should be frank and open. Their actions should be easily discussed
and understood by others.

What values are to individuals, ethics is to business?

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EVOLUTION OF ETHICS OVER THE YEARS

If we trace the history of ethics in business, we would realize that ethics had been a part of
theological discussions prior to 1960. Before the 1970s, there were a few writers like Raymond
Baumhart who dealt with ethics and business. Ethical issues were mostly discussed as part of
social issues. Men of religion and theologians continued writing and teaching on ethics in
business. Professors in B-schools wrote and continued to talk about corporate social
responsibility (CSR) the handmaid of ethics. However, the catalyst that led to the field of business
ethics was the entry of several "philosophers, who brought ethical theory and philosophical
analysis to bear on a variety of issues" Norman Bowie' dates the genesis of business ethics as
November 1974, with the first conference on the subject held at the University of Kansas. In 1979,
three anthologies on business ethics appeared. They were

(i) Ethical Theory and Business by Tom Beauchamp and Norman Bowie

(ii) Ethical Issues in Business: A Philosophical Approach by Thomas Donaldson and

Patricia Werhane, and

(iii) Moral Issues in Business by Vincent Berry. In 1982, Richard De George brought out
Business Ethics,

while Manuel G. Velasquez published his Business Ethics Concepts and Cases. All these books
created a lot of interest on the subject and business ethics courses were offered in several
management schools. The emergence of business ethics, however, was not restricted to
textbooks and courses in B-schools. By 1975, business ethics became institutionalized at many
levels through writings and conferences. By the 1980s, the subject was taught in several
universities in the United States and Europe. There were also, by this time, many journals of
business ethics, apart from center and societies established to promote ethical practices.

By the year 1990, business ethics as a management discipline was well-established, "Although the
academicians from the start had sought to develop contacts with the business community, the
history of the development of business ethics as a movement in business, though related to the
academic developments can be seen to have a history of its own."

Parallel to these academic pursuits, around the time from the 196ls to the 1950s, the Consumers‗
Association in Britain multiplied its membership and campaigned hard on issues such as
consumer rights, quality, safety, price, customer service and environmental concerns. The late
1980s and early 1990s saw increased concerns for the environment and by 1989 environment
was the issue of greatest concern in Britain In 1988, more than 50 per cent of the people in West
Germany called themselves green consumers, that is, these who preferred to select one product
over another for environment-friendly reasons. The United States followed with 45 per cent,
Australia with 21 per cent, Great Britain with 14 percent, which within one year shot up to 42 per
cent. Catholic teaching such as Papal Encyclicals 15
emphasized the need for morality in business,
such as workers' simultaneously with these developments or even anticipating them, religion
also lent its powerful voice. Rights and living wages as in Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo Xll. Sume
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of the Protestant seminaries developed ethics as part of their curriculum. Danng the 19, there
was a use of social issues in business and many business practices came under social scrutiny
during this series President John F Kennedy Consumer Bill 'of Rights reflected a new era of
consumerism. Daring the 197, professors teaching business began to write about business
period. John F Kennedy Consumer of re The ethics and philosophers began to involve
themselves in the theoretical evolution or themselves the theoretical evolution of the subject.
Businessmen became more concerned with their public image and addressed ethics more
directly. From this historical development, we can see that business ethics as a fill study and
research is a faintly is a field of study and is a fully nascent subject.

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IMPORTANCE AND NEED FOR BUSINESS ETHICS

Ethics is closely related to trust. Most people would agree on the fact that to develop trust,
behavior must be ethical. Ethical behavior is necessity to trust. Trust will be used as an indicator
Variable of ethics.

Basically, trust is three-dimensional; that is, trust is supplier relationships, trust in employee‗s
relationships and trust in customer relationships. In such a situation, the entire stakeholders of
the company are taken care of. If the company is able to maintain this trust-relationship with the
internal as well as external stakeholders, then we can call that company as an ethical company.

Trust leads to predictability and efficiency or business Ethics is all about developing trust and
maintaining it fruitfully so that the firm flourishes profitably and maintain good reputation. Lack
of ethics would lead to unethical practices in organizations as well as in personal life. On wonders
why sometimes even educated, well-positioned managers and employees of some reputed
companies act unethically. This is because of lack of ethics in their lives. We can point out to
numerous examples of companies whose top managements are involved in unethical practices,
for example, Enron and WorldCom, in 2002 and a host of others including in investment bankers
Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch in 2008.

Earlier it was said that 'business of business is business! Now there is a sudden change in the
slogan. In the contemporary scenario where ethics has its due importance, the slogan has taken
the form the business of business is ethical business'. Applying ethics in business makes good
sense because it induces others to follow ethics in their behavior Ethics is important not only in
business but also in all aspects of life. The business of a society that lacks ethics is likely to fail
sooner or later.

People as investors and members of civil society are concerned about unethical and anti-social
development in organizations. The collapse of the Global Trust Bank, the UTI fiasco and the spat
between the Ambani brothers caused concern to the investing and general public.

A study of business ethics helps us to unravel the underlying forces why these things happen?
What are their implications and what are the options available to solve the problems that arose?
Business ethics enables us to assess the benefits and problems associated with different ways of
managing ethics in organizations. It help us Assess the role of business in contemporary society.
Even as business contributes to the growth of the society by offering products and services,
enhancing incomes and standard of living, providing jobs, paying taxes to the government and
being the facilitator for economic developed, its functioning often raises several ethical issues
such as pollution, environmental degradation, and corrupt practices. "that go to the heart of the
social role of business" By enabling people to understand these malpractices and the
consequent repercussions, business ethics seeks to improve the welfare of the society by
offering a social and political platform for remedial, and sometimes proactive action.
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There are thousands of companies which, notwithstanding the poor image business community
as a whole has among the public, have succeeded in making profit and enhanced public esteem
by following ethical practices in their realm of business. Some of such companies are. Johnson &
Johnson, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Infosys and Tata Steel. They have gained the trust of the public
through ethical practices In India, the House of Tatas, for instance, adhere to, and communicate
key ethical standards in several ways. The Tata Code of Conduct affirms that "The Tata name
represents more than a century of ethical conduct of business in a wide array of markets and
commercial activities in India and abroad. As the owner of the Tata mark, Tata Sons Ltd wishes to
strengthen the Tita brand by formulating the Tata Code of Conduct, enunciating the values at
buve powered and shall govern the conduct and activities of companies associating with or using
the Tata name and of their employees.

SIGNIFICANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Events in corporate America, Europe, and in many emerging economies at the beginning of the
new millennium and more recently in the fag end of 2008, have demonstrated the destructive
fall-outs that take place when the top management of companies do not behave ethically. Lack
of ethics has led highly educated, resourceful and business savvy professionals at mega
corporations like Enron, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom and Adelphia Communications to
get themselves into a mess.
In India too, we have had several instance of highly successful corporations like ITC and Reliance
getting into severe problems when the top brass misled them to unethical practices. Recently,
the chairman of the South Korean automobile giant Hyundai Chung Mong-Koo was arrested
and jailed for diverting more than $1 billion from the company as bribes to government officials.

If we analyze the reasons as to why such unethical practices taken place in corporations, we may
come across several dimensions to the discussion on the importance and significance of business
ethics. There are quite few businessmen and entrepreneurs who are of the opinion that business
and ethics do not go hand in hand as there is no proven evidence that following ethical practices
does being profits to the firm. They think that a company may not be in a position to reap the full
benefits offered by the business environment if they were to worry about how ethically they
should run the organization. It may not be able to take advantage of the op opportunities
provided by circumstances if they have to worry about ethical considerations all the time. Besides,
the choice of an ethical alternative among many other alternatives and getting due benefits after
investing on ethical practices may take time, which may act as a constraint. There are others to
whom making profit and increasing market capitalization are the only imperatives and yardsticks
of efficiency and successful corporate management. To them, the end justifies the means. There
are hundreds of CEOs who hold this opinion and act unethically, though many of them were
18
proved wing when nemesis caught up with them as in the cases of top executives of WorldCom
and Enron.
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Real-life situations have shown that use of ethical practices in business does create high returns
for companies. There have been many empirical studies that have shown that companies that
follow ethical practices are able to double their profits and show increased market capitalization
compared to companies that do not adhere to ethics. In our own country, Tata Steel and Infosys
are two classic examples that illustrate this line of thinking.

Running a business ethically is good for sustaining business. Applying ethics in business also
makes good sense. The corporation that behaves ethically prompts other business associates, by
its good example, to behave ethically as well. Organizations work on synergy and delegation. It is
the feeling of the oneness with the company, which is called as a feeling of ownership that
enhances the sincerity of a worker in an organization.
Organizations cannot work in a manner where the employees are not given duc importance in
their affairs. For Example, of a management exercises particular care in meeting all responsibilities
to employees, customers and suppliers, it usually is rewarded with a high degree of loyalty,
quality and productivity. Likewise, employees who were treated ethically will more likely behave
ethically themselves in dealing with customers and business associates. A supplier who refuses to
exploit his advantage during a seller's market condition retains the loyalty and continued business
of its customers when conditions change to those of a buyer's market. A company like Sakthi
Masala Pvt. Ltd, that does not discriminate against elderly or handicapped employees and uses
every opportunity to convince them that they are wanted as much as others, discovers that they
are fiercely loyal, hardworking and productive.

There is a cultivated belief in society for thousands of years, may be due to religious influence or
an unwavering faith in morality, that a "good man" who steadfastly tries to be ethical is bound
to overtake his immoral or amoral counterpart in the long run. A plausible explanation of this
view on ethical behavior is that when individuals operate with a conviction on the ethical
soundness of their position, their minds and energies are freed for maximum productivity and
creativity On the other hand when practicing unethical behavior, persons find it necessary to
engage in exhausting subterfuge, resulting in diminished effectiveness and reduced success.

Professionals like Kenneth Lay, Martha Stewart, Dennis Kozlowski or Bernard Ebbers, the CEO of
WorldCom who turned themselves disrupted by paying themselves millions of dollars in
compensation while the it companies were in dire financial straits were certainly aware of what
constitutes ethics. "They were either foo blinded by self-interest or simple did of care that they
were not following the standards that they had set for their subordinates.

The top management of organizations, who take personal pay cuts in difficult financial times
for their organizations are respected by everyone. Companies should have the flexibility of
adjusting cost structures during bad times, replace old factory with new ones, or change
technology in ways that would require fewer people to do the work.
These decisions should be taken after ensuring that those affected are empathize with and are
provided adequate and financial support. 19
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Managers may face situations where they are not sure, or are perplexed about the ethical side
of their actions. If a company believes that profits are more important than environmental
protection, the decision of its manage to halt a process on account of his concerns about its
impact on the environment might not be appreciated by the company. It is up to the manager
to analyze whether the proposed action would be in terms with the goals of the firm and take a
decision accordingly.

Moral or ethical behavior can neither be legislated nor taught in a vacuum. Authority, it is said,
cannot bring about morality. The best way to promote by setting a good personal example.
Teaching an employee ethics is not always effective. One can explain and define ethics to an
adult, but understanding ethics does not necessarily result in behaving ethically. Personal values
and ethical behavior are taught at an early age by parents and educators.

The innate human belief that ethical, moral or good behavior will find its reward ultimately is
ingrained in people psyche. This is demonstrated in stage plays and films where the 'virtuous
hero wins over wicked villain. The fact that people would rarely accept the success of evil or
unethical forces over the ethical or good ones has been demonstrated time and again by the
failure in box office of such plays or films depicting such on unconventional formula.

Ethics are important not only in business but also in all aspects of life because it is an essential
part of the foundation on which a civilized society is built. A business, as much as a society, that
lacks ethical principles is bound to fail sooner than later.

HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY ARE THE

TOUCHSTONES OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Ethical corporate behavior is nothing but a reiteration of the ancient wisdom that 'honesty is the
best policy'. The dramatic collapse of some of the Fortune 500 companies such as Enron and
WorldCom or the well- known auditing firm Andersen showed that even successful companies
could ultimately come to grief, if their managers did not practice the basic principles of integrity.
For every profession "we would think of a code of conduct or a set of values, which has a moral
content and that would be the essence of ethics for that profession" There should be
transparency in operations leading to accountability, which should ensure safety and protect the
interest of all stakeholders.

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VALUES AND ETHICS IN BUSINESS

Business ethics are related to issues of "what is right' and "what is wrong' while doing business.
The constituents of business ethics include adherence to truth, a commitment to justice and
public integrity. What values are to individuals, ethics are to business?

Personal values as we have seen earlier, refer to a conception of what an individual or group
regards as desirable. A value is a view of life and judgment of what is desirable that is very much
part of a person's personality and a group morale. Thus, a benign attitude to welfare is a value
which may prompt an industrialist to do much more for workers than what the labor law
stipulates. Service-mindedness is a value which when cherished in an organization would
manifest in better customer satisfaction. Personal values are imbibed from parents, teachers and
elders, and as an individual grows, values are adapted and refined in the light of new knowledge
and experiences. Within an organization, values are imparted by the founder-entrepreneur or a
dominant chief executive and they remain in some form, even long after that person's exit.

J.R.D. Tata once said this when asked to define the House of Tatas and what links that forge
the Tata companies together. "I would call it a group of individually managed companies
united by two factors: First, a feeling that they are part of a larger group which carries the
name and prestige of Tatas, and public recognition of honesty and reliability trustworthiness.
The other reason is more metaphysical. There is an innate loyalty, a sharing of certain beliefs.
We all feel a certain pride that we are somewhat different from others". These several values
that R.D. Tata refers to have been derived from the ideals of the founder of the group,
Jamshedji Tata.

Business ethics operate as a system of values relating business goals and techniques to meet
specific man ends. This would mean viewing the needs and aspirations of individuals as part of
society. It also means realization of the personal dignity of human beings. A major task of
leadership is to inculcate personal values and impart a sense of business ethics to the
organizational members. At one end values and the shape the corporate culture and dictate the
way how politics and power will be used and, at the other end, clarity the social responsibility in
the organization.
A typical dilemma faced by people in business is to decide whether to reconcile the pragmatic
demands of work which often degenerate to distortion of values and unethical business
practices, or to listen to the call of the ‗inner voice‗ which somehow prevents them from using
unethical means for achieving organizational goals. This dilemma stems from the fact that
apparently the value system of the organization has already been contaminated beyond
redemption.

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Some analysts attribute this to the acceptable behavior in society at particular point of time or
justify it in terms of the rapid transition of a developing society where social mechanisms
become obsolete. For instance, many multinational companies (MNCs) in India indulge in some
undesirable practices such as resorting to payment of speed money, bribery, use of substandard
inputs, evasion of excise duties and corporation taxes, etc., which they would be wary of doing in
their home countries because of the signs and penalty attached to such activities. Besides, the
dire need to make a profit in a fiercely competitive environment also makes them indulge in
such malpractices.

Corruption in industry, which is a major by-product of degradation of values and ethics, is also
related to the stability of industry to stand up to the discretionary powers of a regulatory system
designed and administered by an unholy alliance of bureaucrats and politicians. But repeated
observations have shown that excel at organizations-besides other values have explicit belief in,
and recognition of the importance of economic growth and profit, and are driven by values
rather than avarice. It has been possible for Indian companies such as Infosys, Tata Steel, Asian
Paints, Bajaj Auto and Wipro to excel on the basis of super ordinate goals, a set of values and
aspirations and corporate culture. Managers, therefore, have to provide the right values and
ethical sense to the organization they manage.

Take for instance, such issues as consumers being taken for a ride on matters such as warranty,
annual maintenance contracts, consumers being asked to pay very high prices for components,
discriminating prices, and management‘s collusion with union leadership, FEMA violations, and
insider trading. lack of transparency, lack of integrity and unfair presentation of financial
statements, feeding top management only with information they want to hear, window dressing
of balance sheets, backdating of contracts, manipulation of profit and loss accounts, hedging
and fudging of unexplainable and inordinate expenditures and resorting to suppressio veri,
suggestio falsi, and continuous upward revaluation of assets to conceal poor performance, etc.
These are only the tips of the iceberg.

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VALUES, ETHICS AND BUSINESS STRATEGY

Personal values and ethics are important for all human beings. They are especially important for
business man age as they are custodians of the immense economic power vested in business
organizations by society. However, can managers prevent their personal values from affecting
business strategy formulation and implementation? This is a tricky question.

It is often observed from failed corporations that management executive while working out their
business strategy are guided generally by what they personally want to do, rather than what they
have been directed to do by the board, or the company policy in the absence of any direct
supervision. As a result, somewhere down the line, the right connection between values, ethics and
strategy is lost while their managing business.
However, it is vitally necessary that business managers should be guided as much by values and
ethics as by economic reasons. Guided by this, it can be added that ―purity of mind‖, can come
only from having the right connection between values ethics and strategy. It is imperative that
executives take business decisions not only on the basis of purely economic reasons but on ethical
and moral values as well

"Using ethical considerations in strategic decision making will result in the development of most
effective long-term and short-term strategies. Specifically, ethical criteria must be included as
part of the strategic process in before-profit decisions rather than after- profit decisions. This will
enable the company to maximize profits and enhance the development of strategy and its
implementation.

Decision between Values & Ethics:

At this point, it is necessary to differentiate between values and ethics Values are personal in
nature (e. a belief in providing customer satisfaction and being a good paymaster) while ethics is
a generalized value system (c., avoiding discrimination in recruitment and adopting for business
practices). Business ethics can provide the general guidelines within which management can
operate. Values, however, offer alternatives to choose from. For example, philanthropy as a
business policy is optional. An entrepreneur may or may not possess this value and still remain
within the limits of business ethics. It is values, therefore, that vary strategy formulation and
implementation among managers in an organization and such a variance may be a source of
conflict at the time of business strategy formulation and implementation.

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Managers have to reconcile divergent values and modify values, if necessary. A typical situation
of value divergence may arise while setting objectives and determining the precedence of
different objectives. One group of managers (may be coalition) may be interested in production-
oriented objectives-standardization and mass production while another group may stress
marketing related objectives, product quality and variety, small-log production, etc. These
interests may be legitimate in the sense that they arise from their functional bias. It is for the
chief executive to reconcile the divergent values.
Obviously, this can best be done in the light of strategic requirements and
environmental considerations.

Modification of values is frequently senior business strategy implementation. A particular

business strategy, say of expansion, may create value requirements such as stress on efficiency,
risk taking attitude; etc. Implementation may be sub-optimal if existing values do not conform
to these requirements. In such cases, modification of values is necessary. But what was said of
corporate culture is true for values too: They are difficult, if not impossible, to change, A
judicious use of politics and power, redesigning of corporate culture, and making systematic
changes in organization can help to modify values gradually.

ROOTS OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

People often wonder why employees indulge in unethical practices such as lying, bribery,
coercion, conflicting interest, etc. There are certain factors that make the employees think and
act in unethical ways. Some of the influencing factors are pressure to balance work and family,
poor communications, pour leadership, long work hours, leave work long, lack of management
support, pressure to meet sales or profit goals, little or no recognition of achievements,
company politics, personal financial worries, and insufficient resources.

The statistical data given by Ethics Officers Association in 1997 show how certain practices or
factors contribute to unethical behavior."

Balancing work and family 52% Poor

Leadership 51%

Poor internal communication 51%

Lack of management support 48%

Need to meet goals 46%

From the above statistics it is very much evident that conflicting interests lead to most of the
unethical practices.

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WHY DOES BUSINESS HAVE SUCH A NEGATIVE IMAGE?

The fact that by and large business has a negative image cannot be overstressed Books, journals,
movies and TV shows invariably depict business in bad light Even though businessmen may not
want to be unethical, factors such as competitive pressures, individual greed, and differing
cultural contexts generate ethical issues for organizational managers. ―Further, in almost every
organization some people will have the inclination to behave unethically (the ethical egoist)
necessitating systems to ensure that such behavior is either stopped or detected and remedied.‖

WHY SHOULD BUSINESS ACT ETHICALLY?

An organization has to be ethical in its behavior because it has to exist in the competitive world.
We can find a number of reasons for being ethical in behavior, few of them are cited below: Most
people want to be ethical in their business dealings. Values give management credibility with its
employees. Only perceived moral righteousness and social concern brings employee respect.
Values help better decision making.

There are a number of reasons why businesses should act ethically

• to protect its own interest;

• to protect the interests of the business community as a whole so that the public will
have trust in it;
• to keep its commitment to society to act ethically;
• to meet stakeholder expectations;
• to prevent harm to the general public;
• to build trust with key stakeholder groups;
• to protect themselves from abuse of unethical employees and competitors;
• to protect their own reputation;
• to protect their own employees; and
• to create an environment in which workers can act in ways consistent with their values.

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Besides, if a corporation reneges on its agreement and expects others to keep theirs, it will be
unfair. It will also be inconsistent on its part, if business agrees to a set of rules to govern
behavior and then to unilaterally violate those rules. Moreover, to agree to a condition where
business and businessmen tend to break the rules and also get away with it is to undermine the
environment necessary for running the business

Hard decisions which have been studied from both an ethical and an economic angle are more
difficult to make, but they will stand up against all odds, because the good of the employees,
public interest and the company own long-term interest and those of all stakeholders would
have been taken into account.

Ethics within organizations is a must. It should be initiated by the top management, and
percolate to the bottom of the hierarchy. Then alone, will the company be viewed as ethical by
the business community and the society at large "Further, a well- communicated commitment to
ethics sends a powerful message that ethical behavior is considered to be a business imperative.

If the company needs make profit and to have a good reputation, it must act within the confines
of ethics. Ethical communication within the organization would be a healthy sign that the
company is marching towards the right path.

Internalization of ethics by the employees is of utmost importance. If the employer has properly
internalized ethics, then the activities that individuals or organizations carry out will have ethics in
them.

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ETHICAL DECISION MAKING

Ethical decision making is a very tough prospect in this dog-eat-dog world. However, in the long
run all will have to fall in and play fair. The clock is already ticking for the unscrupulous
corporations. In this age of liberalization and globalization, the old dirty games and unethical
conduct will no longer be accepted and tolerated.

Norman Vincent Peale and Kenneth Blanchard have prescribed some suggestions to conduct
ethical business.

• Is the decision you are taking legal? If it is not legal, it is not ethical.

• Is the decision you are taking fair? In other words, it should be a win-win-equitable risk and
reward

• The Eleventh Commandment - Thou shall not be ashamed when found' meaning when you
are hauled up over some seemingly unethical behavior, if one's conscience is clear, then there is
nothing to be ashamed of.

HOW CORPORATIONS OBSERVE ETHICS IN THEIR

ORGANIZATIONS?

Organizations have started to implement ethical behavior by publishing in-house codes of ethics
which are to be strictly followed by all their associates. They have started to employ people with a
reputation for high standards of ethical behavior at the top levels. They have started to
incorporate consideration of ethics into performance review Corporations which wish to
popularize good ethical conduct have started to reward ethical behaviour. Codes promulgated by
corporations and regulatory bodies continue to multiply Some MNCs like Nike, Coca Cola, GM
and IBM, and Indian companies like ICICI, TISCO, Infosys, Dr Reddy's Lab, NTPC, ONGC, Indian Oil
and several others want to be seen as socially responsible and have issued codes governing all
types of activities of their employees Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Indian
capital market regulator, Confederation of Indian Industries (CH) and such organizations
representing corporations have issued codes of best practices and enjoy their members to
observe them. These normative statements make it clear that corporate leaders anxious for
business growth should not make plans without looking at the faces and Lives of those
oppressed by poverty and injustice.

In fact, today, managers and would-be entrepreneurs are groomed to be ethical and socially to
be ethical and socially responsible even while being educated. The Indian Institutes of
Management (ITMS) and highly rated B-schools like Xavier Labour Relation Institute (XLRI) and
Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), have courses in their curriculum and give
extensive and intensive instruction in business ethics, corporate social responsibility and
corporate governance. Many corporations conduct
27 an Ethics Audit and at the same time, they are
continuously looking for more ways to be more ethical.
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CHANGING BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND ETHICAL

CHALLENGES

Companies these days respond to the champion business environment by adopting new and
effective tools to communicate their ethical culture. The fast-changing external environment of
business necessitates positive changes in the response of individual organization. The change
that is created by information and Technological explosion in such that organization cannot
resist change any more. With these changes several ethical issues have to be faced and solved to
the satisfaction of all stakeholders. Due to the increasing shift in business growth, most of the
organizations tend to give more powers to those at the lower levels of hierarchy leading to
decentralization of powers and decision making. The process of decentralization leads to a
number of ethical issues in the organization. Conflicting goals of the individual and of the
organization are the root cause of several unethical practices. Such strategic alliances have
brought about complex and hitherto unknown ethical conflicts and have caused newer situations
to emerge and challenge ethical decisions. With the huge increase in the availability of
information coming from all sources such as partners, competitors and buyers, the possibility of
unlawful and even illegal use of proprietary information is indeed enormous. When such conflicts
of interest arise, companies have to solve them through ethical practices alone, as otherwise they
will not in the long-run be able to survive in the modern fiercely competitive world.

The ethical implications of a firm behavior in a fast changing business environment were
considered by McCoy who thinks ethics to be the core of business behavior. He states: "Dealing
with values requires continual monitoring of the surrounding environment, weighing alternative
courses of action, balancing and when possible) integrating conflicting responsibilities, setting
priorities among competing goals, and establishing criteria for defining and evaluating
performance." Apart from these, there are learning ways that bring this ethical reflection directly
and fully into the policy- making processes. Increasingly value-based skills are being recognized
as integral components of performance and policy making and as central for effective
management in a society and a world undergoing rapid change.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ETHICS

Though the concept of corporate governance may sound il novelty in the Indian business
context and may be linked to the era of liberalization, it should not be ignored that the ancient
Indian texts are the true originators of good business governance as one important sloka from
the Rigveda says, "A businessman should benefit from business like a honey bee which suckles
honey from the flower without affecting its charm and beauty"

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Business ethics and corporate governance of an organization go hand in hand. In fact, an

organization that follows ethical practices in all its activities will, in all probability, follow best
corporate governance practices as well.

The Phoenix School of Management defines corporate governance as a set of policies and
procedures that the company's directors employ in their conduct of the company's affairs and
their relationship with shareholders to whom they are responsible as managers." The OECD,
KPMG and the World Bank conceptualize corporate governance as an entire system with well-
defined codes, rules and structures in order to direct and control business and non-business
organizations.

There are some others who define corporate governance as the guiding principle that on one
hand tries to synthesize the seemingly conflicting goals among individual, the corporation and
the community, and an the immediate benefits to the corporation such as profits and the secular
and lasting substantive social gains" But more commonly, corporate governance is understood
as a set of rules that govern the administration and management of companies. It is considered
as an entire system with codes, values, rules and structures to control the goals and goal
performance of companies, and also as a method by which to evaluate the working of an
organization in terms of how rights of various parties are defined and led in all these facets of
corporate governance the underlying goal posts are transparency, integrity full disclosure of
financial and non- financial information, protection of stakeholders interest are as much ethical
practice as they are part of corporate governance.

As a public company, it is of critical importance that company's filings with the regulators are
accurate and timely. The CEO and the senior leadership of the finance department bear a
special responsibility for Promoting integrity throughout the organization, with
responsibilities to stakeholders, both inside and out-side of the company. A company, well
governed in every aspect of internationally accepted corporate governance norms would put
in place the following ethical practices

1. Act with honesty and integrity avoiding actual or apparent conflict of interest in
personal and professional relationships;
2. Provide information that is accurate complete objective relevant, timely and
understandable to ensure full, fair, accurate, timely, understandable disclosure in
reports and documents that companies file wit, or submit to the regulators;
3. Comply with the laws of the land, rules and regulations set forth by the different layers
of governments and those of the regulatory bodies concerned with your business.
4. Act in good faith, responsibly, with due cure, competence and diligence, without
misrepresenting material facts or blowing one's independent judgement to be
subordinated;

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5. Protect the confidentiality of the information provided at the workplace and not
disclose it to anyone unless authorized or legally bound to do so.
6. Ensure confidential information made available in the place of work is not used to
promote personal benefit.
7. Share knowledge and maintain skills important and relevant to stakeholders' needs.
"Proactively promote and be an example of ethical behavior as a responsible partner
among peers, in the work environment and the community; and
8. Achieve responsible use of and control over all assets and resources employed or
entrusted.

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HOW ETHICS CAN MAKE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MORE

MEANINGFUL?

1. Corporate governance: meant to run companies ethically in a manner such that all
stakeholders, creditors, distributors, customers, employees, and even competitors, the society
at large and governments are dealt with in a fair manner.

2. Good corporate governance should look at all stakeholders and not just shareholders alone.
Otherwise, a chemical company, for example, can maximize the profit of shareholders, but
completely violate all environmental laws and make it impossible for the people around the
area even to lead a normal life. Ship breaking at Valinokkam, near Arantangi in Tamil Nadu,
leather tanneries and hosiery units in Tirupur, have brought about too much of environmental
degradation, and along with it untold miseries to people in and around their locations.

3. Corporate governance is not something which regulators have to impose on a management,

it should come from within. There is no point in making statutory provisions for enforcing
ethical conduct. There has been dozens of violations of SEBI rules, RBI guidelines, etc. when
company management were not inclined to follow them. On the other hand, there had also
been several instances where companies had gone beyond these rules to serve stakeholders
since the top management preferred them that way.

4. There are several provisions in the Companies Act, (i) disclosing the interest of directors in
contracts in which they are interested; (ii) abstaining from exercising voting rights in matters
they are interested and (iii) statutory protection to auditors who are supposed to go into the
details of the financial management of the company and report the same to the shareholders of
the company. But most of these may be observed in letter, not in spirit Members of the board
and top management should ensure that these are followed both in letter and in spirit.

5. There are a number of grey areas where the law is silent or where the regulatory framework is
weak. These are manipulated by unscrupulous persons like Ketan Parekh and Harshad Mehta. In
the United States, for instance, the courts recognize that new forms of fraud may arise, which
may not be covered technically under any existing law and cannot be interpreted as violating
any of the existing laws, For example, a clever conman can try to sell a piece of the blue sky In
order to check much crooks, there is the concept of the blue sky' law, However, such wide-
ranging processes are not available to courts in developing countries like India.

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6. SEBI has jurisdiction only in cases of limited and listed companies and is concerned only
with their protection. What about the shareholders and stakeholders of other unlisted
limited companies that far outnumber listed companies?

7. The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SIFO) in the Department of Company Affairs (DCA)
has been engaging several "vanishing companies by 2003. SEBI has identified 229 vanishing
companies-which tapped the capital market, collected funds from the public and subsequently
became untraceable. However, thousands of investors have lost their hard-earned money and
no agency has come to their rescue so far.

A business organization has to compete for a share in the global market on its own internal
strength, in particular on the strength of its human resource and on the goodwill of its other
stakeholders. While its state of the art technologies and high level managerial competencies
could be of help in meeting the quality, cost, volume, speed and break even requirements of
the highly competitive global market, it is the value- based management and ethics that the
organization has to use in its governance. That would enable the organization to establish
productive relationship with its internal customers and lasting business relationship with its
external customers.

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BENEFITS FROM MANAGING ETHICS IN WORKPLACE

Several benefits accrue to an enterprise if it is merged ethically.

They are the following

ATTENTION TO BUSINESS ETHICS HAS SUBSTANTIALLY

IMPROVED SOCIETY

Establishment of anti-trust laws, unions, and other regulatory bodies has contributed to the
development of society. There was a time when discrimination and exploitation of employees were
high, the fight for equality and fairness at workplace ended up in establishing certain laws which
benefited the society.

ETHICAL PRACTICE HAS CONTRIBUTED TOWARDS HIGH PRODUCTIVITY

AND STRONG TEAM WORK

Organizations being a collection of individuals, the values reflected will be different from that of
the organization. Constant check and dialogue will ensure that the value of the employee matches
the values of the organization. This will in turn result in better cooperation and increased
productivity.

CHANGING SITUATONS REQUIRES ETHICAL EDUCATION

Daring turbulent times, when chaos becomes the order of the day, one must have clear ethical
guidelines to take right decisions. Ethical training will be of great help in those situations. Such
training will enable managers manning corporations to anticipate situations and equip themselves
to face them squarely.

ETHICAL PRACTICES CREATE STRONG PUBLIC IMAGE

Organizations with strong ethical practices will possess a strong image among the public. This
image would lead to strong and continued loyalty of employees, consumers and the general
public. Conscious implementation of ethics in organizations becomes the cornerstone for the
success and image of the organization. It is because of this ethical perception that the
employees of TISCO and the general public protested in 1977 when the then Minister for
Industries in the Janata Government, George Fernandes, attempted to nationalize the company.

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STRONG ETHICAL PRACTICES ACT AS AN INSURANCE

Strong ethical practices of the organization are an added advantage for the future function of
the business In the long run, it would benefit if the organization is equipped to withstand the
competition.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ETHICAL ORGANIZATION

Mark Pastin in his work, The Hard Problems of Management: Gaining the Ethical Edge
provides the following characteristics of ethical organizations:

a) They are at ease interacting with diverse internal and external stakeholder
groups. The ground rules of these firms make the good of these stakeholder
groups parts of the organization own good.
b) They are obsessed with fairness. Their ground rules emphasize that the other
person‗s interests count as much their own.
c) Responsibility is individual rather than collective, with individuals assuming
personal responsibility for actions of the organization. These organizations
ground rules mandate that individuals are responsible to themselves.
d) They see their activities in terms of purpose. This purpose is a way of operating that
members of the organization highly value. And purpose ties the organization to its
environment.

There will be clear communications in ethical organizations.

Minimized bureaucracy and control paves way for sound ethical practices.

Ethical practices of some reputed Indian companies:

Some companies in the market have proved to be successful with ample amount of ethical
practices throughout. On one hand, they contribute to their shareholders and on the other
hand, they are successful in giving back to the society and to the nation. To mention a few-

Tata Group

Tata Group Policy proclaims that the chief executive office of a Tata company is also its Chief
Ethics Officer adopts following ethical practices:

National Interest

Support for open Marker Economy

Gifts and Donation for social cause 34

Political Non-alignment

Health, Safety and Environment Care

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Quality Products and Services

Regulatory Compliance

Coca-cola India

Support community base primary education project

Environment preservation

Enrichment of work place

Establishment of rain water harvesting systems

Wipro Technologies

Quality Education

Support voluntary work projects

Intensive training for creative thinking

ICICI Bank

Established an organization as ―Social Initiative Group‖ which focuses on

Health

Education

Micro-financial services

Values:

The Sanskrit word for value, Ishta, means ‗the object of liking‘. The term value may, therefore,
be defined as ‗that which is desired‘. According to Stephen Robbins, values represent ―a specific
mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or
converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence‖. Edward Spinger defines the values ―as
the constellation of likes, dislikes, viewpoints, inner inclinations, rational and irrational
judgments, prejudices, and association pattern that determine a person‘s view of the world‖.
Values are the deep-seated ideas and feelings that manifest themselves as behavior or
conduct. The true reflection of one‘s values is his/her action. Values are what we, as a
profession, judge to be right. They are more than words-they are the moral, ethical and
professional attributes of character.

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Characteristics of Values
 36

Values tent to be relatively stable and enduring. A significant portion of the values, we hold is
establish in our early years from parents, teachers and others. So, these values are originally
learned.

Values constitute the foundations of one‘s character. They are at the core of personality and a
powerful force affecting behavior.

Values are abstract representation of what people believe to be right, proper and worthwhile to
pursue.

Some values are not fixed, but they change over time and situation.

Values have intensity and content attributes in which the content attribute says that a mode of
conduct or end-state of existence is important and intensity attribute explains how important it
is.

The values which are internalized by an individual, become a part of his personality, then they
go beyond the zone of choice for the person concerned. His action based on these values then
become spontaneous and continuous, automotive and instinctive.

RECOGNIZING ETHICAL ORGANIZATION

There are certain characteristics by which we will able to identify an ethical organization.

ON THE BASIS OF CORPORATE EXCELLENCE

Corporate excellence mainly centers on the corporate culture, Values and practice of such
values constitute the corporate culture. Values of the organization give a clear direction to the
employee. Values are found in the mission statement of the organizations. Often they remain
as a principle and are never put into practice. Only the practiced value creates the
organization culture. When values act in tune with the goals of the organization we call it as
the corporate culture of that organization. Often we see conflicting interests between the
value and the organizations' goal. Organizations must eradicate such impediments to be
identified as ethical.

IN RELATION TO THE STAKEHOLDERS

Meeting the needs of stakeholders through the activities of the managers determines
whether the organization is ethical or not. The top management is the representation of the
stakeholders and every decision taken must satisfy the needs of the stakeholder. It need not
be stressed here that it was the stakeholders' pressure that has been instrumental in bringing
ethical issues into the Centro-stage of corporate agenda.
Consumers in most developed societies want corporations
36 to demonstrate ethical
responsibility in every area of their functioning and in their treatment of employees, the
community, the environment, etc.

Companies have been prompted to change their way of thinking and working so that ethical
 37

issues and corporate responsibility become an integral part of their business. The
management while taking decisions must see that the stakeholders enjoy the maximum
benefit of that decision. For example, Marico, the makers of Parachute Oil, discovered a
harmless tint in the oil from one of its production lines. The company withdrew the batch
from the market shut down the production line, but kept the workers on payroll and involved
them in the investigation of the cause. Shortly, the workers located the cause, rectified it and
resumed normal production.

IN RELATION TO CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Managers are only stewards of the owners of the corporate assets. Thus they are
accountable for the use of the assets to the owners. If they perform well in the prescribed
manner, then there would not be much question of corporate governance. Such behavior
of the top managers would generate ethical practices or at least would encourage ethical
practices in the organization If only the top management is paid as per their performance,
this approach would work.

Ethics involves systemizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong
behavior. It is important to clarify what is not Ethic. Ethics is different from religion since it
applies to all people irrespective of their religious affiliations. Ethics is not synonymous with
law. Ethical standards are different from cultural traits. Ethics is also different from feelings.
And strictly speaking, Ethics is not a science.

While personal ethics refers to the application of desirable values in everything one does,
business ethics is the application of ethical principles of integrity and fairness, and
concentrates on the benefits to all stakeholders. Business managers should have integrity,
impartiality, and responsiveness to public interest, accountability, and honesty.

Prior to 1960, ethics was part of theological discussion. Later on writers like Raymond
Baumbart, Richard T. De George, Themes Donaldson Patricia Werhane, Vincent Berry, and
Manuel G. Velasquez contributed their mite ta the eroth of the subject. Alang with academic
pursuits, the Church, B-schools and consumer movement also added to the development of
business ethics.

In today's world, business of business is ethical business. With the globalization of business,
monopolistic market condition or State patronage for any business organization has
become a thing of past. A business organization has to compete for a share in the global
market on its own internal strength, in particular on the strength of its human resource, and
on the good- will of its stakeholders.

While its state-of-the-art technologies and high-level managerial competencies of an

37 cost, volume, speed and breakeven
organization could be of help in meeting the quality,
requirements of the highly competitive global market, it is the value-based management
and ethics in its governance that would enable it to establish productive relations up with its
internal customers and Lasting business relationship with its external customers.
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Real-type situations show that use of ethical practices in business creates high returns for
companies, for example, Tata Steel and Infosys. Besides, running business ethically is good
for sustaining business.

To exist and be successful in a competitive world business has to be ethical, Moral or ethical
behavior should come from within and should be driven by examples of the top
management. Managers have to reconcile divergent values and modify them if necessary.
Organizations should work on synergy and delegation which will bring all round progress.
Nowadays, companies adopt innovative tools to communicate their ethical culture as a
response to the changing business environment. These changes bring in new issues and
problems.

Several benefits accrue to a firm if it follows ethical practices: improves society,

enhances productivity and team work, provides cause for ethical education, creates
strong public image and insures against any pitfalls the firm may face.

An ethical organization can be recognized on the basis of its corporate excellence and its
relation to the stakeholders it follows: corporate governance, a set of rules that govern the
administration and management of companies. Its goalposts are transparency, integrity, full
disclosure of financial and non-financial information, and protection of stakeholder‗s
interests. These tenets are as much ethical practice as they are part of corporate governance.
It is for these reasons that value-based management and practice of ethics have become
imperatives in corporate governance now, and in the foreseeable future. If values are the
bedrock of any corporate culture, ethics are the foundation of authentic business
relationships.

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Moral Science

What is Moral…Meaning…

• Concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour.

• Holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct.

• A lesson that can be derived from a story or experience.

• standards of behaviour; principles of right and wrong

What is moral science?

• Moral science teaches you the moral values.

• It teaches you certain ways and behaviour that you have got to follow in order
to mingle and get alone in society in order to keep up your relationship.

• It‘s mostly rules and procedures that show justice towards the society.

Importance

• Individuals (Self) are part of a family which in turn is part of a group

(Community) which in turn is part of humanity … etc.

• When children join the school, they are impressionable as ever, and by
instilling moral values, they become worthy members of the society. Moral
science is crucial in life for various reasons.
What you know about yourself

• Your positive points

• Your negative points

• Your moods

• Words you are using very often while speaking

• Your style at home

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• Your style at college / outside home
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Moral Education

• What is moral education?

• How important it is in human life?

• Leading by example.

• Seeing is believing.

• Having human values as a subject in schools and colleges.

• Moral education is basically a training which shows us the right and just way
to lead our lives.

• Being honest, just, legitimate, accommodative, generous, to share love and

care, show consideration and sensitivity are basic principles of moral
education.

• It is more of a practice which enriches the way of our lifestyle.

• Moral education can be rendered at home, school, by tutors, elders and

parents.

• Every young parent should be very attentive toward their children‘s

requirement of moral education.

• Childhood is the most vulnerable period which impacts the overall

development of an individual‘s personality. As a parent be attentive about
what your kid is learning and from where.

• As a parent, you need to be careful about the peer and friends your child
might have and take time out to make them understand what‘s right and
wrong.

• Children are the foundation of our society the torchbearers of our nation. As a
teacher and an influencer, one must take care of the moral training and basic
qualities that are conferred on the children.

• It will eventually affect the fate of the country as a whole. Moral education is a
must to be executed as understudies in school and universities.

• Every time a child is caught lying or gets out of hand, necessary counselling
40
has to be given to them. It is important to treat them as an equal and show
trust and faith in them and make them confident to take their own calls.

• They should always be taught that it might be difficult, to tell the truth, but it
 41

is always essential to tell the truth. Stories and examples must be shared with
them so that they have more clarity of thought.

• Give them time and treat them with patience at all times.

• It is also important to educate children to be disciplined and not to cheat

while in class and examinations. They are to be taught that there are no
shortcuts in life and life is an examination where there is no syllabus, the only
thing that can get them though is a good character and speaking the truth at
all times.

• Public schools have a vital role to play in nurturing these consensus virtues
and values, as the character education movement rightly emphasizes; indeed,
a major purpose of schooling is to help develop good persons.

• If we are to live together peacefully in a pluralistic society, we must also

nurture those civic virtues and values that are part of our constitutional
tradition

• We must acknowledge responsibility for protecting one another's rights;

• We must debate our differences in a civil manner; we must keep informed.

• A major purpose of schooling is to nurture good citizenship.

• Character education and liberal education cannot be isolated in single courses

but should be integrated into the curriculum as a whole.

• We also believe, however, that the curriculum should include room for a moral
capstone course that high school seniors might take, in which they learn about
the most important moral frameworks of thought—secular and religious,
historical and contemporary—and how such frameworks might shape their
thinking about the most urgent moral controversies they face.

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Story Telling

• Storytelling is a means for sharing and interpreting experiences. Peter L.

Berger says human life is narratively rooted; humans construct their lives and
shape their world into homes in terms of these groundings and memories.
Stories are universal in that they can bridge cultural, linguistic and age-related
divides. Storytelling can be adaptive for all ages, leaving out the notion of age
segregation. Storytelling can be used as a method to teach ethics, values and
cultural norms and differences. Learning is most effective when it takes place
in social environments that provide authentic social cues about how
knowledge is to be applied. Stories function as a tool to pass on knowledge in
a social context. So, every story has 3 parts. First, The setup (The Hero's world
before the adventure starts). Second, The Confrontation (The hero's world
turned upside down). Third, The Resolution (Hero conquers villain, but it's not
enough for Hero to survive. The Hero or World must be transformed). Any
story can be framed in such format.

• Human knowledge is based on stories and the human brain consists of

cognitive machinery necessary to understand, remember and tell
stories. Humans are storytelling organisms that both individually and socially,
lead storied lives. Stories mirror human thought as humans think in narrative
structures and most often remember facts in story form. Facts can be
understood as smaller versions of a larger story, thus storytelling can
supplement analytical thinking. Because storytelling requires auditory and
visual senses from listeners, one can learn to organize their mental
representation of a story, recognize structure of language and express his or
her thoughts.

• Stories tend to be based on experiential learning, but learning from an

experience is not automatic. Often a person needs to attempt to tell the story
of that experience before realizing its value. In this case, it is not only the
listener who learns, but the teller who also becomes aware of his or her own
unique experiences and background. This process of storytelling is
empowering as the teller effectively conveys ideas and, with practice, is able to
demonstrate the potential of human accomplishment. Storytelling taps into
existing knowledge and creates bridges both culturally and motivationally
toward a solution.
42
• Stories are effective educational tools because listeners become engaged and
therefore remember. Storytelling can be seen as a foundation for learning and
teaching. While the story listener is engaged, they are able to imagine new
 43

perspectives, inviting a transformative and empathetic experience. This

involves allowing the individual to actively engage in the story as well as
observe, listen and participate with minimal guidance. Listening to a storyteller
can create lasting personal connections, promote innovative problem solving
and foster a shared understanding regarding future ambitions. The listener
can then activate knowledge and imagine new possibilities. Together a
storyteller and listener can seek best practices and invent new solutions.
Because stories often have multiple layers of meanings, listeners have to listen
closely to identify the underlying knowledge in the story. Storytelling is used
as a tool to teach children the importance of respect through the practice of
listening. As well as connecting children with their environment, through the
theme of the stories, and give them more autonomy by using repetitive
statements, which improve their learning to learn competence. It is also used
to teach children to have respect for all life, value inter-connectedness and
always work to overcome adversity. To teach this a Kinesthetic learning
style would be used, involving the listeners through music, dream
interpretation, or dance.

Passing on of Values in indigenous cultures

Stories in indigenous cultures encompass a variety of values. These values include an

emphasis on individual responsibility, concern for the environment and communal welfare.

Stories are based on values passed down by older generations to shape the foundation of
the community. Storytelling is used as a bridge for knowledge and understanding allowing
the values of "self" and "community" to connect and be learned as a whole. Storytelling in
the Navajo community for example allows for community values to be learned at different
times and places for different learners. Stories are told from the perspective of other people,
animals, or the natural elements of the earth. In this way, children learn to value their place
in the world as a person in relation to others. Typically, stories are used as an informal
learning tool in Indigenous American communities, and can act as an alternative method for
reprimanding children's bad behavior. In this way, stories are non-confrontational, which
allows the child to discover for themselves what they did wrong and what they can do to
adjust the behavior.

Parents in the Arizona Tewa community, for example, teach morals to their children through
traditional narratives. Lessons focus on several topics including historical or "sacred" stories
or more domestic disputes. Through storytelling, the Tewa community emphasizes the
traditional wisdom of the ancestors and the importance
43 of collective as well as individual
identities. Indigenous communities teach children valuable skills and morals through the
actions of good or mischievous stock characters while also allowing room for children to
make meaning for themselves. By not being given every element of the story, children rely
 44

on their own experiences and not formal teaching from adults to fill in the gaps.

When children listen to stories, they periodically vocalize their ongoing attention and accept
the extended turn of the storyteller. The emphasis on attentiveness to surrounding events
and the importance of oral tradition in indigenous communities teaches children the skill of
keen attention. For example, Children of the Tohono O'odham American Indian community
who engaged in more cultural practices were able to recall the events in a verbally presented
story better than those who did not engage in cultural practices. Body movements and
gestures help to communicate values and keep stories alive for future generations. Elders,
parents and grandparents are typically involved in teaching the children the cultural ways,
along with history, community values and teachings of the land.

Children in indigenous communities can also learn from the underlying message of a story.
For example, in a nahuatl community near Mexico City, stories about ahuaques or hostile
water dwelling spirits that guard over the bodies of water, contain morals about respecting
the environment. If the protagonist of a story, who has accidentally broken something that
belongs to the ahuaque, does not replace it or give back in some way to the ahuaque,
the protagonist dies. In this way, storytelling serves as a way to teach what the community
values, such as valuing the environment.

Storytelling also serves to deliver a particular message during spiritual and ceremonial
functions. In the ceremonial use of storytelling, the unity building theme of the message
becomes more important than the time, place and characters of the message. Once the
message is delivered, the story is finished. As cycles of the tale are told and retold, story units
can recombine, showing various outcomes for a person's actions.

Storytelling as art form

Aesthetics

The art of narrative is, by definition, an aesthetic enterprise, and there are a number of
artistic elements that typically interact in well-developed stories. Such elements include the
essential idea of narrative structure with identifiable beginnings, middles, and endings, or
exposition-development-climax-resolution-denouement, normally constructed into coherent
plot lines; a strong focus on temporality, which includes retention of the past, attention to
present action and protection /future anticipation; a substantial focus on characters and
characterization which is "arguably the most important single component of the novel"; a
given heterogloss of different voices dialogically at play – "the sound of the human voice, or
many voices, speaking in a variety of accents, rhythms and registers"; possesses a narrator or
narrator-like voice, which by definition "addresses" and "interacts with" reading audiences
(see Reader Response theory); communicates with a Wayne Booth-esque rhetorical thrust, a
dialectic process of interpretation, which is at times
44 beneath the surface, conditioning a
plotted narrative, and at other times much more visible, "arguing" for and against various
positions; relies substantially on now-standard aesthetic figuration, particularly including the
use of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony (see Hayden White, Met history for
 45

expansion of this idea); is often enmeshed in intersexuality, with copious connections,

references, allusions, similarities, parallels, etc. to other literatures; and commonly
demonstrates an effort toward bildungsroman, a description of identity development with an
effort to evince becoming in character and community.
Festivals

Storytelling festivals typically feature the work of several storytellers and may include
workshops for tellers and others who are interested in the art form or other targeted
applications of storytelling. Elements of the oral storytelling art form often include the tellers
encouragement to have participants co-create an experience by connecting to relatable
elements of the story and using techniques of visualization (the seeing of images in the
mind's eye), and use vocal and bodily gestures to support understanding. In many ways, the
art of storytelling draws upon other art forms such as acting, oral
interpretation and Performance Studies.

In 1903, Richard Wyche, a professor of literature at the University of Tennessee created the
first organized storytellers league of its kind. It was called The National Story League. Wyche
served as its president for 16 years, facilitated storytelling classes, and spurred an interest in
the art.

Several other storytelling organizations started in the U.S. during the 1970s. One such
organization was the National Association for the Perpetuation and Preservation of
Storytelling (NAPPS), now the National Storytelling Network (NSN) and the International
Storytelling Center (ISC). NSN is a professional organization that helps to organize resources
for tellers and festival planners. The ISC runs the National Storytelling
Festival in Jonesborough, TN. Australia followed their American counterparts with the
establishment of storytelling guilds in the late 1970s. Australian storytelling today has
individuals and groups across the country who meet to share their stories. The UK's Society
for Storytelling was founded in 1993, bringing together tellers and listeners, and each year
since 2000 has run a National Storytelling Week the first week of February.

Currently, there are dozens of storytelling festivals and hundreds of professional storytellers
around the world, and an international celebration of the art occurs on World Storytelling
Day.
Emancipation of the story

In oral traditions, stories are kept alive by being told again and again. The material of any
given story naturally undergoes several changes and adaptations during this process. When
and where oral tradition was superseded by print media, the literary idea of the author as
originator of a story's authoritative version changed people's perception of stories
themselves. In centuries following, stories tended to be seen as the work of individuals rather
45
than a collective effort. Only recently when a significant number of influential authors began
questioning their own roles, the value of stories as such – independent of authorship – was
again recognized. Literary critics such as Roland Barthes even proclaimed the Death of the
Author.
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This content has been taken form United Nations website of SDG for purpose to
education and imparting knowledge of SDG.

All Credits to United Nations’ official website

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Goal No 1: NO POVERTY: WHY IT MATTERS

55 per cent of the world’s population have no access to social protection What’s the
goal here?
To end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030.
Why?
More than 700 million people, or 10% of the world population, still live in extreme poverty
and is struggling to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, and accessto water and
sanitation, to name a few. The majority of people living on less than $1.90 a day live in sub-
Saharan Africa.
Worldwide, the poverty rate in rural areas is 17.2 per cent—more than three timeshigher
than in urban areas.
Having a job does not guarantee a decent living. In fact, 8 per cent of employed workers and
their families worldwide lived in extreme poverty in 2018.
Poverty affects children disproportionately. One out of five children live in extreme poverty.
Ensuring social protection for all children and other vulnerable groups is critical to reduce
poverty.
Why is there so much poverty in the world?
Poverty has many dimensions, but its causes include unemployment, social exclusion, and
high vulnerability of certain populations to disasters, diseases and other phenomenawhich
prevent them from being productive. I’m not poor. Why should I care about otherpeople’s
economic situation?
There are many reasons, but in short, because as human beings, our well- being is linkedto
each other. Growing inequality is detrimental to economic growth and undermines social
cohesion, increasing political and social tensions and, in some circumstances, driving
instability and conflicts. Can we actually achieve this goal?
Yes. To end extreme poverty worldwide in 20 years, economist Jeffrey Sachs calculated that
the total cost per year would be about $175 billion. This represents less than one percent of
the combined income of the richest countries in the world.
So what can I do about it?
Your active engagement in policymaking can make a difference in addressing poverty. It
ensures that your rights are promoted and that your voice is heard, that inter- generational
knowledge is shared, and that innovation and critical thinking are
encouraged at all ages to support transformational change in people’s lives and
communities.

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Governments can help create an enabling environment to generate productive

employment and job opportunities for the poor and the marginalized. They can
formulate strategies and fiscal policies that stimulate pro-poor growth, and reduce
poverty.
The private sector, as an engine of economic growth, has a major role to play in determining
whether the growth it creates is inclusive and hence contributes to povertyreduction. It can
promote economic opportunities for the poor, focusing on segments ofthe economy where
most of the poor are active, namely on micro and small enterprises and those operating in the
informal sector.
The academic and education community have a major role in increasing the awareness about
the impact of poverty. Science provides the foundation for new and sustainable approaches,
solutions and technologies to tackle the challenges of reducing poverty and achieving
sustainable development. The contribution of science to end poverty has beensignificant. For
example, it has enabled access to safe drinking water, reduced deaths caused by water-borne
diseases, and improved hygiene to reduce health risks related to unsafe drinking water and lack
of sanitation.
Daily Action Points:
1. Get everyone involved. Have a classroom do regular outreach day trips to areas
in need.
2. At birthday parties offer the option to donate money to your chosen charity in
replacement of a birthday gift
3. Buy fair-trade products to support the sustainable trade system, meaning
employees are rewarded fairly for their work.
4. Teach a skill or short course at a community centre (computer skills, building a
resume, preparing for job interviews)
5. Buy clothing or other products from stores that donate a portion of their moneyto
charities.
6. Sponsor a child so they can have access to food, education, and health.
7. Clean out your pantry. Fill a box with non-perishable foods and donate it to a
food bank.
8. Generate discussion around poverty. Write a blog, or write an article in a local
newspaper.
9. Volunteer in homeless shelters. Your time can be more valuable than money.
10. If possible, give to every beggar on the street. An apple, a bottle of water, small
change or even just a smile are better than not giving at all.

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Goal No 2: ZERO HUNGER: WHY IT MATTERS

A profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed to nourish
today’s 800 million hungry, plus the additional 2 billion increase in global population
expected by 2050
What’s the goal here?
To end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable
agriculture.
Why?
Extreme hunger and malnutrition remains a barrier to sustainable development and creates a
trap from which people cannot easily escape. Hunger and malnutrition mean less productive
individuals, who are more prone to disease and thus often unable to earn more and improve
their livelihoods.
There are more than 800 million people who suffer from hunger worldwide, the vast
majority in developing countries.
How many people go hungry?
The number of people going hungry has increased since 2014. An estimated 821 million
people were undernourished in 2017.
The prevalence of undernourishment has remained virtually unchanged in the past three years
at a level slightly below 11 per cent.
This reversal in progress sends a clear warning that more must be done and urgently if the
Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger is to be achieved by 2030. Why are there so
many hungry people?
Climate-induced shocks, civil insecurity and declining food production have all
contributed to food scarcity and high food prices.
Investment in the agriculture sector is critical for reducing hunger and poverty, improving
food security, creating employment and building resilience to disasters and shocks.
Why should I care?
We all want our families to have enough food to eat what is safe and nutritious. A worldwith
zero hunger can positively impact our economies, health, education, equality and social
development.

It’s a key piece of building a better future for everyone. Additionally, with hunger limiting
human development, we will not be able to achieve the other sustainable
development goals such as education, health and gender equality. How much will it cost
to achieve zero hunger?

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We will need an estimated additional $267 billion per year on average to end world hunger by
2030. There will need to be investments in rural and urban areas and in social protection, so
poor people have access to food and can improve their livelihoods.
What can we do to help?
You can make changes in your own life—at home, at work and in the community—by
supporting local farmers or markets and making sustainable food choices, supporting good
nutrition for all, and fighting food waste.
You can also use your power as a consumer and voter, demanding businesses and
governments make the choices and changes that will make Zero Hunger a reality. Join the
conversation, whether on social media platforms or in your local communities.
Action Points:

1. Spread the word. The more ideas are spread to combat hunger; the more people
act.
2. Donate non-perishable foods to charities.
3. Support food assistance programs. They provide over 20 times more food than
food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens.
4. Provide food for schools in developing countries. When there is lunch available,
attendance increases, which also means more girls marry later and have smaller
families.
5. If you employ workers on minimum wage, help support their other needs like
education for their children, or housing supplies.
6. Many emergency food providers need specialized skills such as accounting, social
media or writing skills. Volunteer your expertise once a week.
7. Keep a bag of apples or tinned foods in the car for street beggars.
8. Many hungry people hesitate to ask for help because of the stigma and shame of
it. Speak up about misconceptions and educate others about the realities of
hungry persons.
9. Read a book on hunger. A greater understanding of its causes will better prepare
you to make a difference.
10. Support local farmers by buying your food at farmer’s markets.

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Goal No 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING: WHY IT MATTERS

Spending $1 billion in immunization coverage can save 1 million children’s lives each
year.
What’s the goal here?
To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Why?
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all at all ages is important to building
prosperous societies.
Major progress has been made in improving the health of millions of people. Maternal and
child mortality rates have been reduced, life expectancy continues to increase globally, and
the fight against some infectious diseases has made steady progress.
However, in the case of other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, progress has slowed or
stalled.
At least half the world’s population are still without access to essential health services.
In rich and poor countries alike, a health emergency can push people into bankruptcy or
poverty.
Concerted efforts are required to achieve universal health coverage and sustainable financing
for health; address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, tackleantimicrobial
resistance and environmental factors contributing to ill health.
What progress have we made so far?
Major progress has been made in several areas, including in child and maternal health as well
as in addressing HIV/AIDS.
Despite this progress, maternal mortality continues to affect women in low- and middle-
income countries disproportionately.
The total number of deaths of children under 5 years of age dropped from 9.8 million in 2000
to 5.4 million in 2017. Half of those deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, and another 30
per cent in Southern Asia. Yet stark disparities persist across regions and countries.
How much will it cost to achieve these targets?
Ensuring healthy lives for all requires a strong commitment, but the benefits outweigh the cost.
Healthy people are the foundation for healthy economies.
For example, if we spent $1 billion in expanding immunization coverage against
influenza, pneumonia and other preventable diseases, we could save 1 million children’s

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lives each year. In the past decade, improvements in health and heath care led to a 24 per
cent increase in income growth in some of the poorest countries.
The cost of inaction is greater—millions of children will continue to die from preventable
diseases, women will die in pregnancy and childbirth, and health care costs will continue to
plunge millions of people into poverty.
Non-communicable diseases alone will cost low- and middle-income countries more than
$7 trillion in the next 15 years.
What can I do to help?
You can start by promoting and protecting your own health and the health of those around
you, by making well-informed choices, practicing safe sex and vaccinating your children.
You can raise awareness in your community about the importance of good health,
healthy lifestyles as well as people’s right to quality health care services, especially for the
most vulnerable such as women and children.
You can also hold your government, local leaders and other decision makers
accountable to their commitments to improve people’s access to health and health care. Action
Points:
1. Don’t smoke.
2. Be more active. Go for walks at lunchtime or cycle to work.
3. Eat a healthy diet and drink a lot of water.
4. Be part of increasing awareness of, and support for, mental health ailments such
as depression, substance abuse or Alzheimer’s
5. Heart disease remains the number 1 killer. Educate yourself on the causes and
symptoms of heart disease as well as other Non-Communicable Diseases.
6. HIV/AIDS is not over. Protect yourself. Test yourself.
7. Never stop learning. Engaging in work or educational activities helps lift
older people out of depression. So, learn a new language, read a lot, set up a
book club.
8. Breastfeed. It is natural and the best source of nourishment for babies.
Breastfeeding protects infants from illnesses, has a long term benefit for children
and it benefits mothers.
9. Get enough sleep.
10. Make time for yourself and your friends.

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Goal No 4: QUALITY EDUCATION: WHY IT MATTERS

262 million children and adolescents remain out of school. 617 million lack minimum
proficiency in reading and mathematics.
What is the goal here?
Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. Why does
education matter?
Education enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty.
Education is also essential to achieving many other Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).
When people are able to get quality education they can break from the cycle of poverty.
Education helps to reduce inequalities and to reach gender equality. In fact, one extra year of
education is associated with a reduction of the Gini coefficient by 1.4 percentagepoints.
Education empowers people everywhere to live healthier and sustainable lives. Education is
also crucial to fostering tolerance between people and contributes to morepeaceful societies.
How much progress have we made so far?
Despite years of steady growth in enrolment rates, non-proficiency rates remain disturbingly
high. Globally, an estimated 617 million children and adolescents of primaryand lower
secondary school age— more than 55 per cent of the global total—lacked minimum
proficiency in reading and mathematics in 2015. Non-proficiency rates are highest in sub-
Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia, where more than 80 per cent of children of
primary and lower secondary school age were not proficient in reading.
Where are people struggling the most to have access to education?
Adequate infrastructure and teacher training play a critical role in the quality of education.
Sub-Saharan Africa faces the biggest challenges in providing schools with basic resources.
The situation is extreme at the primary and lower secondary levels, where less than one half
of schools in sub-Saharan Africa have access to drinking water, electricity, computers and the
Internet.
Another important step towards the goal of good quality education for all is getting enough
trained teachers into classrooms. Here again, sub-Saharan Africa lags behind.
Are there groups that have a more difficult access to education?
Yes, women and girls are one of these groups. About one-third of countries in the
developing regions have not achieved gender parity in primary education.

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In sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and Western Asia, girls still face barriers to entering both
primary and secondary school. These disadvantages in education also translate into lack of
access to skills and limited opportunities in the labour market for young women.
What can we do?
Ask our governments to place education as a priority in both policy and practice. Lobby our
governments to make firm commitments to provide free primary school education to all,
including vulnerable or marginalized groups.
Encourage the private sector to invest resources in the development of educational tools
and facilities. Urge NGOs to partner with youth and other groups to foster the importance
of education within local communities.
Daily Action Points:

1. Teach your native language to migrants in a youth centre or elsewhere.

2. Provide food at schools to increase attendance.
3. Educate your kids about the power of education, as many don’t see the tangible
benefits.
4. Show films or TV shows that are educational as well as entertaining for children.
5. Take education outside the school and keep it fun. Travel. Take kids on day trips
to the planetarium or museums.
6. Support charities that are working in education in the poorest parts of the world.
7. Donate books to public libraries or public schools in need.
8. Share success stories, including stories that didn’t make the headlines.
9. In many countries, girls are pulled out of school early in order to get married.
Start conversations that allow for problems to be openly discussed and solutions
to be found.
10. Share your skills with the ones who need them.

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Goal No 5: GENDER EQUALITY: WHY IT MATTERS

In 2018, women only held 27 per cent of managerial positions worldwide.
What’s the goal here?
To achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Why?
Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and therefore also half of its
potential. But, today gender inequality persists everywhere and stagnates social progress.
Women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership. Across the globe,
women and girls perform a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work.
Inequalities faced by girls can begin right at birth and follow them all their lives. In some
countries, girls are deprived of access to health care or proper nutrition, leading to a higher
mortality rate.
How much progress have we made?
Women and girls around the world continue to experience violence and cruel practices.
Physical and/ or sexual violence affects women of all ages, ethnicities, socioeconomic status
and educational level.
Child marriage also affects girls’ education. About one third of developing countries have not
achieved gender parity in primary education. In sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and Western
Asia, girls still face barriers to entering both primary and secondary school.
How does gender inequality affect women?
Disadvantages in education translate into lack of access to skills and limited opportunities
in the labour market. Women’s and girls’ empowerment is essential to expand economic
growth and promote social development. The full participation of
women in labour forces would add percentage points to most national growth rates—double
digits in many cases.
Are there any other gender related challenges?
Yes. Worldwide, 35 per cent of women between 15-49 years of age have experienced physical
and/ or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. 1 in 3 girls aged 15-19
have experienced some form of female genital mutilation/cutting in the 30 countries in Africa
and the Middle East, where the harmful practice is most common with a high risk of prolonged
bleeding, infection (including HIV), childbirth complications, infertility and death. The
Spotlight Initiative, an EU/UN partnership, is a global, multi- year initiative focused on
eliminating all form1s5of violence against women and girls (VAWG).

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But, why should gender equality matter to me? Regardless of where you live in, gender
equality is a fundamental human right. Advancing gender equality is critical to all areas of a
healthy society, from reducing poverty to promoting the health, education, protection and the
well-being of girls and boys. Investing in education programmes for girls and increasing the
age at which they marry can return $5 for every dollar spent.
Investing in programs improving income-generating activities for women can return $7
dollars for every dollar spent.
What can we do to fix these issues?
If you are a girl, you can stay in school, help empower your female classmates to do the same
and fight for your right to access sexual and reproductive health services. If you are a woman,
you can address unconscious biases and implicit associations that form anunintended and
often an invisible barrier to equal opportunity. If you are a man or a boy, you can work
alongside women and girls to achieve gender equality and embrace healthy, respectful
relationships. You can fund education campaigns to curb cultural practices like female genital
mutilation and change harmful laws that limit the rights of women and girls and prevent them
from achieving their full potential.
Daily Action Points:
1. Increase gender representation in areas of leadership in the workplace.
2. Practice and demonstrate to children equal decision-making processes at home.
3. Encourage schools to provide scholarships for girls.
4. Communicate to media outlets (advertising companies, movie production houses
and so on) about the harmful impact of portraying women as inferior, less
intelligent and incompetent compared to their male counterparts.
5. Use mentoring and coaching to help women build their confidence and develop
their careers.
6. If you are a woman, know your rights and stand up for them.
7. Make flexibility and work-life balance a part of the company’s culture.
8. Make gender equality part of training and education. Young people should be
supported in choosing jobs that advance their future, regardless of their gender.
9. Sponsor a girl child who needs a role model.
10. Gender equality starts at home.

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Goal No 6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION: WHY IT MATTERS

Half of the world’s population is already experiencing severe water scarcity at least onemonth a
year
What’s the goal here?
To ensure access to safe water sources and sanitation for all.
Why?
The demand for water has outpaced population growth, and half the world’s population is
already experiencing severe water scarcity at least one month a year. Access to water,
sanitation and hygiene is a human right, yet billions are still faced with daily challenges
accessing even the most basic of services.
3 in 10 people lack access to safely managed drinking water services. About 3 billion
people lack access to basic sanitation services, such as toilets or latrines.
More than 80 per cent of wastewater resulting from human activities is discharged into rivers
or sea without any treatment, leading to pollution.
What are the effects of this?
Water and sanitation-related diseases remain among the major causes of death in
children under five; more than 800 children die every day from diarrhoeal diseases
linked to poor hygiene.
Proper water and sanitation is a key foundation for achieving the Sustainable
Development Goals, including good health and gender equality.
By managing our water sustainably, we are also able to better manage our production of food
and energy and contribute to decent work and economic growth. Moreover, we can preserve
our water ecosystems, their biodiversity, and take action on climate change.
What would it cost to correct the problem?
A study by the World Bank Group, UNICEF and the World Health Organization estimates
that extending basic water and sanitation services to the unserved would cost US$28.4 billion
per year from 2015 to 2030, or 0.10 per cent of the global product of the 140 countries
included in its study.
What would it cost if we don’t correct the problem?
The costs are huge–both for people and for the economy. Worldwide, more than 2
million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases. Poor hygiene and unsafe water are
responsible for nearly 90 per cent of these deaths and mostly affect children.

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The economic impact of not investing in water and sanitation costs 4.3 per cent of sub-
Saharan African GDP. The World Bank estimates that 6.4 per cent of India’s GDP is lost
due to adverse economic impacts and costs of inadequate sanitation.
Without better infrastructure and management, millions of people will continue to die every
year and there will be further losses in biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, undermining
prosperity and efforts towards a more sustainable future.
What can we do?
Civil society organizations should work to keep governments accountable, invest in
water research and development, and promote the inclusion of women, youth and
indigenous communities in water resources governance.
Generating awareness of these roles and turning them into action will lead to win-win results
and increased sustainability and integrity for both human and ecological systems.
You can also get involved in the World Water Day and World Toilet Day campaigns that aim
to provide information and inspiration to take action on hygiene issues.
Daily Action Points:
1. Read a book on water. It will increase your understanding of the impact water
has in societies, economies and our planet.
2. Conserve, conserve, conserve. When ice-cubes are left over from a drink, don’t
throw them away. Put them into plants.
3. Support organisations that give water to areas in need.
4. Donate to projects that require funds for digging boreholes, installing pipes and
pumps, maintenance training to communities etc.
5. Fix leaks at home. A leaky faucet can waste more than 11’000 litres per year.
6. Hold fundraising days in schools on World Water Day and Toilet Day and
donatethe money to your chosen project.
7. Never flush toxic chemicals such as paints, chemicals or medication down the
toilet. It pollutes lakes and rivers and causes health problems in marine life and
humans.
8. Wash your car at commercial car washers who recycle water.
9. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth and while soaping in the shower.
10. Hire a ―Green Plumber‖ to reduce your water, energy and chemical use.

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Goal No 7: AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY: WHY IT MATTERS

3 billion people lack access to clean cooking fuels, resulting in nearly 4 million premature
deaths each year
What’s the goal here?
To ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Why?
A well-established energy system supports all sectors: from businesses, medicine and
education to agriculture, infrastructure, communications and high-technology.
Access to electricity in poorer countries has begun to accelerate, energy efficiency continues
to improve, and renewable energy is making impressive gains. Nevertheless, more focused
attention is needed to improve access to clean and safe cooking fuels and technologies for 3
billion people.

I have access to electricity. Why should I care about this goal?

For many decades, fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas have been major sources of electricity
production, but burning carbon fuels produces large amounts of greenhouse gases which
cause climate change and have harmful impacts on people’s well-being andthe environment.
This affects everyone, not just a few. Moreover, global electricity use is rising rapidly. In a
nutshell, without a stable electricity supply, countries will not be able to power their
economies.

How many people are living without electricity?

Nearly 9 out of 10 people now have access to electricity, but reaching the unserved will
require increased efforts. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 573 million people still lacked
access to electricity. Without electricity, women and girls have to spend hours fetching water,
clinics cannot store vaccines for children, many schoolchildren cannot do homework at night,
and people cannot run competitive businesses. The health and well-being of some 3 billion
people are adversely impacted by the lack of clean cooking fuels, such as wood, charcoal,
dung and coal, which causes indoor air pollution.

What would it cost to switch to more sustainable energy?

The world needs to triple its investment in sustainable energy infrastructure per year, from
around $400 billion now to $1.25 trillion by 2030. Regions with the greatest energydeficits—
sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia—need our help to improve energy access.
That includes pushing harder to find clean, efficient, and affordable alternatives to
health-damaging cook stoves.

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What can we do to fix these issues?

Countries can accelerate the transition to an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energysystem
by investing in renewable energy resources, prioritizing energy efficient practices, and
adopting clean energy technologies and infrastructure. Businesses can maintain and protect
ecosystems to be able to use and further develop hydropower sources of electricity and
bioenergy, and commit to sourcing 100% of operational electricity needs from renewable
sources.
Employers can reduce the internal demand for transport by prioritizing telecommunications
and incentivize less energy intensive modes such as train travel over auto and air travel.
Investors can invest more in sustainable energy services, bring-ing new technologies to the
market quickly from a diverse supplier base.
You can save electricity by plugging appliances into a power strip and turning them off
completely when not in use, including your computer. You can also bike, walk or take
public transport to reduce carbon emissions.
Daily Action Points:
1. Cover the pan with a lid. It reduces the amount of energy required to boil water
by 75%.
2. Turn off electronic equipment such as TVs and computers when going on holiday.
3. Turn lights off in rooms that aren’t being used. When you switch your lights off,
even for a few seconds, it saves more energy than it takes for the light to start
up, regardless of the bulb type.
4. Efficient home designs also combine energy efficient constructions, appliances
and lighting, such as solar water heating and solar electricity.
5. Use energy efficient light bulbs and set your household appliances on low energy
settings.
6. Turndown thermostat and fill the house with carpets to keep the warmth inside.
7. Support solar power projects for schools, homes and offices.
8. Only fill the kettle to the amount of water needed.
9. Installing Air-Conditioning? Ask for solar air conditioning.
10. Seek advice and guidance on energy efficiency in historic buildings.

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Goal No 8: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: WHY IT MATTERS

In 2018, 20 per cent of the world’s youth were not engaged in either education,
employment or training.
What’s the goal here?
To promote, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for
all.
Why?
Sustained and inclusive economic growth can drive progress, create decent jobs for all and
improve living standards.
While real GDP per capita and labour productivity have increased globally, 731 million
people remain below the US$1.90 poverty line.
How many people are unemployed?
The global unemployment rate has finally recovered from the global financial crisis of
2009. In 2018, it stood at 5 per cent—matching the pre-crisis level. However, large
disparities exist across regions and age groups. In 2018, the unemployment rates in
Northern Africa and Western Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean were over 2.5
times higher than those in Central and Southern Asia.
Are jobs enough?
Having a job does not guarantee a decent living. In fact, 8 per cent of employed workers and
their families worldwide lived in extreme poverty in 2018.
In addition to creating jobs, we also need to improve conditions for more than 700 mil-lion
women and men who are working, but not earning enough to lift themselves and their
families out of poverty.
In addition, women and girls must enjoy equal access to equal opportunities with men and
boys for employment.
I have a job. Why does this matter to me?
Society as a whole benefits when more people are being productive and contributing to their
country’s growth. Productive employment and ―decent work‖ are key elements toachieving
fair globalization and poverty reduction. In addition, unemployment can lead to unrest and
disrupt peace if it is left unaddressed.
What does ―decent work‖ mean?
Decent work means opportunities for everyone to get work that is productive and delivers a
fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for
personal development and social integration. It is also important that all

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women and men are given equal opportunities in the workplace. A continued lack of decent
work opportunities, insufficient investments and under-consumption lead to anerosion of the
basic social contract underlying democratic societies: that all must sharein progress.
What can we do to fix these issues?
Providing youth the best opportunity to transition to a decent job calls for investing in
education and training of the highest possible quality, providing youth with skills that match
labour market demands, giving them access to social protection and basic services regardless
of their contract type, as well as levelling the playing field so that all aspiring youth can attain
productive employment regardless of their gender, income level or socio-economic
background.
Governments can work to build dynamic, sustainable, innovative and people-centred
economies, promoting youth employment and women’s economic empowerment, in
particular, and decent work for all. Local authorities and communities can renew and plan
their cities and human settlements so as to foster community cohesion and personal
security and to stimulate innovation and employment.
Daily Action Points:

1. Encourage Bring your-child-to-work Day for youth to see what a healthy

work environment looks like.
2. Become a micro-lender and empower young people to become entrepreneurs.
3. Support international campaigns to end the modern day slavery, forced labour,
human trafficking and forced marriages.
4. Provide stability. Empower young professionals to grow into their positions.
5. Provide food for low earing workers.
6. Provide incentives for hard work. People respond to a reward system.
7. Provide reduced rate on quality health system and facilities for employees.
8. Ensure safe working conditions.
9. Encourage more job opportunities for youth.
10. Financially assist training and development programs for an enhanced skillset.

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Goal No 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE: WHY IT MATTERS

3.8 billion People do not have access to the internet representing 80 per cent of the
population in the least developed countries.
What’s the goal here?
To build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster
innovation.
Why?
Economic growth, social development and climate action are heavily dependent on
investments in infrastructure, sustainable industrial development and technological
progress.
In the face of a rapidly changing global economic landscape and increasing inequalities,
sustained growth must include industrialization that first of all, makes opportunities accessible
to all people, and two, is supported by innovation and resilient infrastructure.
So what’s the problem?
Basic infrastructure like roads, information and communication technologies, sanitation,
electrical power and water remains scarce in many developing countries. An estimated
3.8 billion people still do not have access to the Internet, representing 80% of the
population in the least developed countries. 3 billion people worldwide lack access to
basic sanitation and 3 in 10 people lack access to safely managed drinking water.
How much progress have we made?
The growth of manufacturing in both developing and developed regions slowed in 2018,
attributed largely to emerging trade and tariff barriers that constrain investment and future
expansion. The disparities in industrial productivity between rich and poor nations also
remain stark.
Why should I care?
Inclusive and sustainable industrialization, together with innovation and infrastructure, can
unleash dynamic and competitive economic forces that generate employment and income.
They play a key role in introducing and promoting new technologies, facilitatinginternational
trade and enabling the efficient use of resources.
The growth of new industries means improvement in the standard of living for many of us.
Also, if industries pursue sustainability, this approach will have a positive effect on the
environment. Climate change affects all us.
What is the price of inaction?
The price is steep. Ending poverty would be more difficult, given the industry’s role as a core
driver of the global development agenda to eradicate poverty and advance

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sustainable development. Additionally, failing to improve infrastructure and promote

technological innovation could translate into poor health care, inadequate sanitation and
limited access to education.
How can we help?
Establish standards and promote regulations that ensure company projects and
initiatives are sustainably managed.
Collaborate with NGOs and the public sector to help promote sustainable growth within
developing countries.
Think about how industry impacts on your life and well-being and use social media topush
for policymakers to prioritize the SDGs.
Daily Action Points:

1. Fund projects that provide infrastructure for basic need.

2. Host a small event for people to donate their unused, working phones, and in
turn raise the awareness about the lack of infrastructure for communication
services that 1-1.5 billion people still do not have.
3. Hospitals, schools and clinics can host fundraising events for projects developing
health care infrastructure.
4. Immerse yourself. Organise groups to visit regions where basic needs are missing.
This will broaden understanding and motivate people to act on it.
5. Encourage sustainable infrastructure with efficient resources and
environmentally friendly technologies.
6. Keep up to date with latest technologies and innovation.
7. Invest in domestic technology development research and innovation in
developing countries.
8. Employ more scientific researchers and development workers in the industrial
sector.
9. Make cities healthy. Turn empty roof space on buildings into green roofs. They
improve air quality, insulation by up to 25%, they absorb sound, promote social
integration and more.
10. Don’t throw away, give away. Upgrading our electronic gadgets is inevitable, but
often our gadgets are still in good working condition. Pass on your old working
devices or recycle as certain parts can be recovered.

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Goal No 10: REDUCE INEQUALITIES: WHY IT MATTERS

16,000 children die each day from preventable diseases such as measles and
Tuberculosis.
What’s the goal here?
To reduce inequalities within and among countries.
Why?
Inequalities based on income, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, class, ethnicity,
religion and opportunity continue to persist across the world, within and among countries.
Inequality threatens long-term social and economic development, harms poverty reduction
and destroys people’s sense of fulfilment and self-worth. This,in turn, can breed crime,
disease and environmental degradation.
Most importantly, we cannot achieve sustainable development and make the planet better for
all if people are excluded from opportunities, services, and the chance for a better life.
Despite progress in some areas, income inequality continues to rise in many parts of the
world.
What are some examples of inequality?
16,000 children die each day from preventable diseases such as measles and tuberculosis.
Rural women are three times more likely to die while giving birth than women in urban
centres. Persons with disabilities are the world’s largest minority. 80 per cent of them live in
developing countries. Women and girls with disabilities face double discrimination. These are
just a few examples, but it is an issue that affects everycountry in the world.
Why should I need to care about inequality if I don’t face any discrimination?
In today’s world, we are all interconnected. Problems and challenges, be they poverty, climate
change, migration or economic crises are never just confined to one country or region. Even
the richest countries still have communities living in abject poverty. The oldest democracies
still wrestle with racism, homophobia and transphobia, and religious intolerance. Global
inequality affects us all, no matter who we are or where we are from.
Can we actually achieve equality for everyone in this world?
It can be and should be achieved to ensure a life of dignity for all. Political, economic and
social policies need to be universal and pay particular attention to the needs of disadvantaged
and marginalized communities.
Recent statistics have shown that this is possible. Between 2010 and 2016, in 60 out of 94
countries with data, the incomes of the poorest 40 per cent of the population grew faster than
those of the entire population.

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What can we do?

Reducing inequality requires transformative change. Greater efforts are needed to eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger, and invest more in health, education, social protection and
decent jobs especially for young people, migrants and other vulnerable communities.
Within countries, it is important to empower and promote inclusive social and economic
growth. We can ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of income if we eliminate
discriminatory laws, policies and practices.
Among countries, we need to ensure that developing countries are better represented in
decision-making on global issues so that solutions can be more effective, credible and
accountable.
Governments and other stakeholders can also promote safe, regular and responsible
migration, including through planned and well-managed policies, for the millions of
people who have left their homes seeking better lives due to war, discrimination, poverty,
lack of opportunity and other drivers of migration.
Daily Action Points:
1. Encourage children to make friends with kids from different cultures.
2. Once a month have a coffee with a person who is different from you, whether in
race, beliefs, culture or age.
3. Learn to respect all kinds of people who may do things differently from you.
4. Take your kids to the park and other communal spaces and look for opportunities
to talk to different people. Learn about them. Understand them.
5. Travel the world to learn about different cultures.
6. Sponsor a child to attend a school.
7. Read storybooks to children that describe all the cultures.
8. Say yes to increasing minimum wage of the lowest earning people.
9. Build school, homes and offices to be more accommodating to older persons and
people with disabilities.
10. Stop stereotype. Write a blog of short stories that breaks the way of thinking.

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Goal No 11: SUSTAINABLE CITIS AND COMMUNITIES: WHY IT MATTERS

60 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030
What’s the goal here?
To make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Why?
The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Since 2007, more than half the world’s
population has been living in cities, and that share is projected to rise to 60 per cent by2030.
Cities and metropolitan areas are powerhouses of economic growth contributing about 60 per
cent of global GDP. However, they also account for about 70 per cent of global carbon
emissions and over 60 per cent of resource use.
What are some of the most pressing challenges that cities face today?
Inequality is a big concern. Over 1 billion people live in slums and this number keeps rising.
The levels of urban energy consumption and pollution are also worrying. Cities occupy just 3
per cent of the Earth’s land, but account for 60-80 per cent of energy consumption and 70 per
cent of carbon emissions. Many cities are also more vulnerable to climate change and natural
disasters due to their high concentration of people and location so building urban resilience is
crucial to avoid human, social and economic losses.

I live in a city but I’m not affected by any of these issues. Why should I care?
All these issues will eventually affect every citizen. Inequality can lead to unrest and
insecurity, pollution deteriorates everyone’s health and affects workers’ productivityand
therefore the economy, and natural disasters have the potential to disrupt
everyone’s lifestyles.

What happens if cities are just left to grow organically?

The cost of poorly planned urbanization can be seen in some of the huge slums, tangled
traffic, greenhouse gas emissions and sprawling suburbs all over the world. Slums are a drag
on GDP, and lower life expectancy. By choosing to act sustainably we choose to build cities
where all citizens live a decent quality of life, and form a part of the city’s productive
dynamic, creating shared prosperity and social stability without harming theenvironment.

Is it expensive to put sustainable practices in place?

The cost is minimal in comparison with the benefits. For example, there is a cost to
creating a functional public transport network, but the benefits are huge in terms of
economic activity, quality of life, the environment, and the overall success of a
networked city.

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What can I do to help achieve this goal?

Take an active interest in the governance and management of your city. Advocate for the
kind of city you believe you need.
Develop a vision for your building, street, and neighbourhood, and act on that vision. Are
there enough jobs? Can your children walk to school safely? Can you walk with your family
at night? How far is the nearest public transport? What’s the air quality like?
What are your shared public spaces like? The better the conditions you create in your
community, the greater the effect on quality of life.
Daily Action Points:

1. Start a car pooling system online, internally in the office or in areas that don’t
have access to reliable public transport.
2. Generate awareness about your city’s carbon footprint and ways to improve it.
3. Advocate and support the development of sport and recreational spaces. They
help build stronger, healthier, happier and safer communities.
4. Use public transport, city bikes and other modes of environmentally friendly
transport.
5. Research, encourage and raise awareness for greater information transparency
within your community.
6. Reach out to underprivileged areas. Integrate people of different class and
ethnicity and include them in decision-making processes that involve them,
including their living conditions, pollution and so on.
7. Provide reduced fees on public transport in cities that face the challenge of
congestion.
8. Educate yourself on the cultural and natural heritage of your area. Visit heritage
sites and post about these in a positive light.
9. Gather in small community groups to brainstorm ways to ensure safe and
accessible public spaces especially for women, children, elderly people and
people with disabilities.
10. As a company, offer reduced fees on city bicycle hire.

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Goal No 12: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION: WHY IT MATTERS

If the global population reaches 9.6 billion by 2050, the equivalent of almost three
planets will be required to sustain current lifestyles.
What is the goal here?
To ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Why?
Economic and social progress over the last century has been accompanied by
environmental degradation that is endangering the very systems on which our future
development and very survival depend.

If we don’t act to change our consumption and production patterns, we will cause
irreversible damage to our environment.

What are some of the current consumption and production patterns that need to
change?
There are many aspects of consumption that with simple changes can have a big impact on
society as a whole. For example, about one third of the food produced for human
consumption each year is lost or wasted. When it comes to consumers, households consume
29 per cent of global energy and contribute to 21 per cent of resultant CO2 emissions.

Water pollution is also a pressing issue that needs a sustainable solution. We are
polluting water faster than nature can recycle and purify water in rivers and lakes.
Urgent action is needed to ensure that current material needs do not lead to over-
extraction of resources and further degradation of the environment.

How can I help as a business?

It’s in businesses’ interest to find new solutions that enable sustainable consumption and
production patterns. A better understanding of environmental and social impacts of products
and services is needed, both of product life cycles and how these are affected by use within
lifestyles.
Identifying ―hot spots‖ within the value chain where interventions have the greatest potential
to improve the environmental and social impact of the system as a whole is acrucial first
step.
Businesses can also use their innovative power to design solutions that can both enable and
inspire individuals to lead more sustainable lifestyles, reducing impacts and improving well-
being.

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How can I help as a consumer?

There are two main ways to help: 1. Reducing your waste and 2. Being thoughtful about what
you buy and choosing a sustainable option whenever possible. Reducing our waste can be done
in many ways, from ensuring you don’t throw away food to reducing your consumption of
plastic—one of the main pollutants of the ocean. Carrying a reusable bag, refusing to use
plastic straws, and recycling plastic bottles are good ways to do your part every day.
Making informed purchases about what we’re buying also helps. For example, the textile
industry today is the second largest polluter of clean water after agriculture, and many fashion
companies exploit textile workers in the developing world. If you can buy from sustainable
and local sources you can make a difference as well as exercising pressure on businesses to
adopt sustainable practices.
Daily Action Points:
1. Don’t keep clothes or other items you are not using donate them.
2. Arrange school groups to spend 1 hour a week on the beach, along lakes or in
parks to pick up the litter and to raise awareness on water pollution.
3. Buy fruit that is in funny shapes and overripe, and make smoothies out of them.
4. Partner with hotels and restaurants to fast track leftover foods to charities that
would otherwise be thrown away.
5. Recycle.
6. Keep showers short. Don’t fill bath to the top. Excessive use of water contributes
to global water stress.
7. Buy sustainable products including electronics, toys, shampoo or seafood and
organic groceries.
8. Eat local. And support fair trade associations that support and promote
businesses committed to the principles of fair trade.
9. Do a cold wash. Warm water uses more energy.
10. Drink tap water when it is safe.

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Goal No 13: CLIMATE ACTION: WHY IT MATTERS

To limit global warming to 1.5°C, global carbon emissions need to fall by a staggering 45 per
cent by 2030 from 2010 levels.
What’s the goal here?
Taking urgent action to tackle climate change and its impacts.
Why?
As greenhouse gas levels continue to climb, climate change is occurring at much higher rates
than anticipated, and its effects are evident worldwide. By addressing climate change, we
can build a sustainable world for everyone. But we need to act now.
Are people’s lives really being affected by climate change?
Yes. Severe weather and rising sea levels are affecting people and their property in
developed and developing countries. From a small farmer in the Philippines to a
businessman in London, climate change is affecting everyone, especially the poor and
vulnerable, as well as marginalized groups like women, children, and the elderly.
What happens if we don’t take action?
What happens if we don’t take action? If left unchecked, climate change will cause aver-age
global temperatures to increase beyond 3°C, and will adversely affect every ecosystem.
Already, we are seeing how climate change can exacerbate storms and disasters, and threats
such as food and water scarcity, which can lead to conflict. Doing nothing will end up costing
us a lot more than if we take action now. We have an opportunity to take actions that will lead
to more jobs, great prosperity, and better lives for all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions
and building climate resilience.
Can we solve this problem or is it too late to act?
To address climate change, we have to vastly increase our efforts. Much is happening around
the world – investments in renewable energy have soared. But so much more needs to be done.
The world must transform its energy, industry, transport, food, agriculture and forestry
systems to ensure that we can limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C, maybe even
1.5°C. In December 2015, the world took a significant first step by adopting the Paris
Agreement, in which all countries committed to take action to address climate change. Many
businesses and investors are also committing themselves to lower their emissions, not just
because it is the right thing to do, but because it makeseconomic and business sense as well.
How much would it cost to solve this problem?
In total, public and private sector investment in clean energy needs to reach at least US$1
trillion per year by 2030, and more to build climate resilience. This sounds like a lot, but
consider that of the US$1.7 trillion invested in the global energy supply in 2016,

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nearly 70% was related to fossil fuels. But more and more, governments and businesses are
finding that investments in renewable energy and sustainability are paying off.
What’s more is that the estimated costs of mitigation do not account for the benefits of
reduced climate change. These include cleaner air, greater food security, more liveable cities,
and better health. Investments of only $6 billion for disaster risk reduction over the next 15
years would result in total benefits of $360 billion in terms of avoided losses over the lifetime
of the investment.

What can I do to help achieve this goal?

There are many things that each of us can do as individuals. To find out what you can do, go
to: https://www.un.org/en/actnow

Daily Action Points:

1. Compost food scraps.
2. Drive less. Walk, cycle, take public transport or car pool.
3. Take re-useable bags to the store.
4. Air dry. Let your hair and clothes dry naturally.
5. Avoid driving in peak hours.
6. Maintain your car. A well-maintained car emits fewer toxic fumes.
7. Organise for your school or company to plant new trees every year. Trees give
oxygen and take in carbon dioxide.
8. Unplug TVs, computers and other electronics when not in use.
9. Spread awareness about ways to stop global warming.
10. Only buy what you need. 20-50% of the food we buy ends up in landfill.

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Goal No 14: LIFE BELOW WATER: WHY IT MATTERS

Over 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihood.

What’s the goal here?

To conserve and sustainably use the world’s oceans, seas and marine resources.

Why?
Oceans provide key natural resources including food, medicines, biofuels and other
products. They help with the breakdown and removal of waste and pollution, and their
coastal ecosystems act as buffers to reduce damage from storms. Maintaining healthy oceans
supports climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. And have you been to the
seaside? It’s also a great place for tourism and recreation.

Even more, Marine Protected Areas contribute to poverty reduction by increasing fish
catches and income, and improving health. They also help improve gender equality, as
women do much of the work at small-scale fisheries.

The marine environment is also home to a stunning variety of beautiful creatures, ranging
from single-celled organisms to the biggest animal ever to have lived on the Earth–the blue
whale. They are also home to coral reefs, one of the most diverse eco-systems on the
planet.

Sounds like a worthwhile thing to protect. So what’s the problem?

Increasing levels of debris in the world’s oceans are having a major environmental and
economic impact. Marine debris impacts biodiversity through entanglement or ingestion of
debris items by organisms, which can kill them or make it impossible for them to reproduce.
As far as the world’s coral reefs are concerned, about 20 per cent of them have been
effectively destroyed and show no prospects for recovery. About 24 per cent of the
remaining reefs are under imminent risk of collapse through human pressures, and a
further 26 per cent are under a longer -term threat of collapse.
Furthermore, improper marine management results in overfishing. The lost economic benefits
from the fisheries sector are estimated to be around US$50 billion annually. TheUN
Environment Programme estimates the cumulative economic impact of poor ocean
management practices is at least US$200 billion per year. In the absence of mitigation
measures, climate change will increase the cost of damage to the ocean by an additional
US$322 billion per year by 2050.

What would it cost to correct this?

The costs of taking action largely are offset by the long-term gains. In economic terms, the
Convention on Biological Diversity suggest that scaled up actions to sustain the

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global ocean require a US$32 billion one-time public cost and US$21 billion dollars a
year for recurring costs.

So what can we do?

For Open Ocean and deep sea areas, sustainability can be achieved only through increased
international cooperation to protect vulnerable habitats. Establishing comprehensive, effective
and equitably managed systems of government-protected areas should be pursued to conserve
biodiversity and ensure a sustainable future for the fishing industry.

On a local level, we should make ocean-friendly choices when buying products or eating food
derived from oceans and consume only what we need. Selecting certified products is a good
place to start.

Making small changes in our daily lives, like taking public transport and unplugging elec-
tronics saves energy. These actions reduce our carbon footprint, a factor that contributes to
rising sea levels.

We should eliminate plastic usage as much as possible and organize beach clean-ups. Most
importantly, we can spread the message about how important marine life is and why we
need to protect it.

Daily Action Points:

1. Start regularly volunteering in community groups to clean up a portion of the
beach from litter if living nearby.
2. Don’t buy jewellery and other items made from coral, tortoise shells or other
marine life.
3. Eat local sustainable food.
4. Support organisations that protect the oceans.
5. Use fewer plastic products, which often end up in oceans causing the death of
marine animals.
6. Respect laws related to over fishing.
7. Inform yourself on ocean activities by watching educational DVDs
anddocumentaries.
8. Avoid buying wild-caught, salt-water fish for your home aquarium.
9. Only use the dishwasher and laundry machine when full.
10. Practice responsible recreational activities like boating, fishing, snorkelling and
kayaking.

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Goal No 15: LIFE ON LAND: WHY IT MATTERS

1 million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction.

What’s the goal here?

To sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land
degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.

Why?
Forests cover nearly 31 per cent of our planet’s land area. From the air we breathe, to the
water we drink, to the food we eat–forests sustain us.
Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood. Almost 75 per cent ofthe
world’s poor are affected directly by land degradation.
Forests are home to more than 80 per cent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and
insects. However, biodiversity is declining faster than at any other time in human history.
An estimated 20 per cent of the Earth’s land area was degraded between 2000 and 2015.

Biodiversity and the ecosystem services it underpins can also be the basis for climate change
adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies as they can deliver benefits that will increase
the resilience of people to the impacts of climate change.
Forests and nature are also important for recreation and mental well-being. In many
cultures, natural landscapes are closely linked to spiritual values, religious beliefs and
traditional teachings.
What would it cost to correct the problem?
The UN Forum on Forests Secretariat estimates that achieving sustainable forest management
on a global scale would cost US$70-$160 billion per year. The Convention on Biological
Diversity estimates that US$150-$440 billion per year is required to halt theloss of
biodiversity at a global level by the middle of this century.
What would it cost if we don’t correct the problem?
Biodiversity delivers multiple services from local to global levels, while responses to
biodiversity loss range from emotional to utilitarian. For instance, insects and other pollen-
carriers are estimated to be worth more than US$200 billion per year to the global food
economy. Three-quarters of the top-ranking global prescription drugs con- tain components
derived from plant extracts, which would be threatened. Natural disasters caused by
ecosystems disrupted by human impact and climate change alreadycost the world more than
US$300 billion per year. Deforestation and forest degradation results in loss of habitat for all
species, a decrease in freshwater quality, an increase in soil erosion, land degradation and
higher emions of carbon into the atmosphere. In short, not taking action on forests impacts
both the health of the planet and our communities.
What can we do?
Inevitably, we change the ecosystems we are a part of through our presence–but we canmake
choices that either affirm diversity or devalue it. 77
Some things we can do to help include recycling, eating a locally-based diet that is sustainably
sourced, consuming only what we need, and limiting energy usage through efficient heating
and cooling systems. We must also be respectful toward wildlife and only take part in
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ecotourism opportunities that are responsibly and ethically run in order to prevent wildlife
disturbance. Well-managed protected areas support healthy ecosys- tems, which in turn keep
people healthy. It is therefore critical to secure the involvement of the local communities in
the development and management of these protected areas.

Daily Action Points:

1. Avoid using pesticides that end up in rivers and lakes, as they are harmful to
wildlife.
2. Eat seasonal produce. It tastes better, it is cheaper and it is environmentally
friendly.
3. Help fund projects to rehabilitate lands.
4. Never buy products made from threatened or endangered species.
5. Recycle used paper and go paperless where possible.
6. When you go into stores, or when you participate in market places, make
environmentally friendly choices that are in favour of our planet.
7. Eat less meat. The production and distribution of meat has a huge impact on
greenhouse gas emissions.
8. Make your own compost. It supports biodiversity, enriches the soil, and reduces
the need for chemical fertilizers.
9. Participate in local urban farming.
10. Buy recycle product.

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Goal No 16: PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS: WHY IT MATTERS

Today, 20 million people are refugees, over 41 million people have been internally
displaced, and at least 4 million people are stateless.
What’s the goal here?
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice
for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Why?
Peaceful, just and inclusive societies are necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs). People everywhere need to be free of fear from all forms ofviolence and feel
safe as they go about their lives whatever their ethnicity, faith or sexual orientation.
In order to advance the SDGs we need effective and inclusive public institutions that can
deliver quality education and healthcare, fair economic policies and inclusive environmental
protection.
What needs to be done to address this?
To achieve peace, justice and inclusion, it is important that governments, civil societyand
communities work together to implement lasting solutions to reduce violence, deliver
justice, combat corruption and ensure inclusive participation at all times.
Freedom to express views, in private and in public, must be guaranteed. People must be able
to contribute to decisions that affect their lives. Laws and policies must be applied without
any form of discrimination. Disputes need to be resolved through functioning political and
justice systems.
National and local institutions must be accountable and need to be in place to deliver basic
services to families and communities equitably and without the need for bribes.
How does this goal apply to me, wherever I live?
Crimes that threaten the foundation of peaceful societies, including homicides, trafficking and
other organized crimes, as well as discriminatory laws or practices, affect all countries. Even
the world’s greatest democracies face major challenges in addressing corruption, crime and
human rights violations for everyone at home.
What would be the cost of not taking action now?
Armed violence and insecurity have a destructive impact on a country’s development,
affecting economic growth and often resulting in long-standing grievances among
communities.
Violence, in all its forms, has a pervasive impact on societies. Violence affects children’s
health, development and well-being, and their ability to thrive. It causes trauma and weakens
social inclusion.

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Lack of access to justice means that conflicts remain unresolved and people cannot obtain
protection and redress. Institutions that do not function according to legitimate laws are prone
to arbitrariness and abuse of power, and less capable of delivering publicservices to everyone.
To exclude and to discriminate not only violates human rights, but also causes
resentment and animosity, and could give rise to violence.
What can we do?
Take a genuine interest in what your government is doing. Raise awareness in your
community about the realities of violence and the importance of peaceful and just
societies, and identify how you can pursue the SDGs in your daily life.
Exercise your right to hold your elected officials to account. Exercise your right to
freedom of information and share your opinion with your elected representatives.
Be the change – promote inclusion and respect towards people of different backgrounds,
ethnic origins, religions, gender, sexual orientations or different opinions. Together, we can
help to improve conditions for a life of dignity for all.
Daily Action Points:

1. Make your voice heard and vote in your country’s elections.

2. Participate in your country’s decision making processes in an informed manner.
3. Stop violence against women. If you see it happening, report it.
4. Find value in different demographics, thoughts and beliefs for an inclusive
society.
5. Demonstrate a peaceful environment at home.
6. Be passionate about your country’s decisions, and remain peaceful when
standing up for what you believe in.
7. Read, write or make a video to stand up for peace.
8. Spend some time each week quietly reflecting on how would like to relate to
others.
9. Volunteer at local anti-violence organisations and outreach programmes.
10. Host or participate in local community events to get to know one another in safe
environments. This can be at sports events, barbeques, and festivals and so on.

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Goal No 17: PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS: WHY IT MATTERS

Strong international cooperation is needed now more than ever to ensure that countries have
the means to achieve the SDGs
What’s the goal here?
To revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
Why?
In 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that aims to end
poverty, tackle inequalities and combat climate change. We need everyone to come together—
governments, civil society, scientists, academia and the private sector—to achieve the
sustainable development goals.
Why does this matter to me?
We are all in this together. The Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, is
universal and calls for action by all countries, both developed countries and developing
countries, to ensure no one is left behind.

How much progress have we made?

Support for implementing the SDGs is gaining momentum, but major challenges remain. A
growing share of the global population has access to the Internet, and a Technology Bank for
Least Developed Countries has been established, yet the digital divide persists.

As partners, what would we need to do to achieve the Agenda?

We will need to mobilize both existing and additional resources—technology develop- ment,
financial resources, capacity building— and developed countries will need to fulfiltheir
official development assistance commitments.

Multi stake holder partnerships will be crucial to leverage the inter-linkages between the
Sustainable Development Goals to enhance their effectiveness and impact and accelerate
progress in achieving the Goals.

How can we ensure the resources needed are effectively mobilized and monitored?
This will be primarily the responsibility of countries. Reviews of progress will need to be
undertaken regularly in each country, involving civil society, business and representa- tives
of various interest groups. At the regional level, countries will share experiences and tackle
common issues, while on an annual basis, at the United Nations, the High- Level Political
Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), they will take stock of progress at the global
level, identifying gaps and emerging issues, and recommending corrective action.

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What can we do to help?

Join/create a group in your local community that seeks to mobilize action on theimplementation of the SDGs.
Encourage your governments to partner with businesses for the implementation of the SDGs.
Register your initiatives on the SDGs Partnerships Platform to inform, educate, network, and be inspired!

Daily Action Points:

1. Encourage schools to embrace teamwork outside the classrooms in local communities and
businesses.
2. Look for synergies and build stronger multi-stakeholder partnerships. Share knowledge, expertise,
technology and financial resources.
3. Teach kids about partnerships through sport.
4. Collaborate with organisations that need funding in an area you feel strongly about.
5. Encourage corporate social responsibility towards projects related to sustainable development in
developing countries.
6. Collaborate with organisations in different countries who share the same goals that you have.
7. Show the power of partnerships through documentaries on success stories.
8. Be clear, specific and creative about your social goals.
9. Techno-experts: partner with projects that need technological skills in developing countries.
10. Practice teamwork at home. Share activities among all family members and outside the family.