UNU Senior Vice-Rector Prof. Taikan Oki recently spoke with Springer Nature about his work focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the importance of transdisciplinary research collaboration. The interview is part of a weekly blog series in the lead-up to the SDGs Symposium 2021 co-hosted by Springer Nature and The University of Tokyo on 26 March 2021.
Highlighting his SDG efforts on behalf of UNU, Prof. Oki commented that:
"As Senior Vice-Rector of the United Nations University, I participate in the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, in which each country reports annually on its efforts to attain the SDGs. Many persons who took part in formulating the SDGs are involved in this forum. In hearing from them about various discussions that led to the SDGs, I have realized that rather than scrutinizing the details of the SDGs, which have a complicated format of 17 goals, 169 targets, and 232 technical indicators, it is more important to understand the purpose of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. After all, the SDGs are the goals stated in 2030 Agenda, and it is the 2030 Agenda that recognizes the problems underlying the SDGs and indicates directions the world should pursue in the future."
Read the full interview — SDG Perspectives from Japan: Insights from Taikan Oki, a Global Hydrologist — on the Springer Nature website.
