The UNGA80 Opportunity: Winning the SDG battle where it actually happens, in the family
By: Damilola Bakare.
As world leaders gathered in New York for the 80th UN General Assembly, a familiar script played out. Grand promises would be made, and ambitious frameworks would be debated. Yet, the evidence suggests we are on track to miss our 2030 targets for the Sustainable Development Goals. Why? There is a growing consensus that our global strategy is overlooking the most fundamental unit of human society: the family.
We are trying to fill a leaking bucket from the top. We invest in schools while overlooking the familial pressures that pull children out of them. We legislate for gender equality while the architecture of inequality is reinforced daily in household norms. This isn’t only a funding gap; it’s a fundamental strategic oversight. The fate of our global goals will not be decided solely in the UN hall. It is being decided, right now, in the quiet, private calculus of millions of families worldwide.
The Data That Reveals the Limits of Our Current Approach
The evidence is no longer just disappointing; it is a powerful testament to the limits of a top-down approach.
On Health (SDG 3): A child born to a mother with even a basic education is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five. Our health interventions can fall short because they often target the individual, not the family power dynamics that influence a woman’s health choices.
On Education (SDG 4): Over 120 million girls are out of school. The barrier is frequently not a lack of classrooms, but a decision made within a family, weighing a daughter’s immediate value against her long-term potential.
On Gender Equality (SDG 5): The World Bank estimates that gender-based discrimination in families and societies could cost the global economy up to $160 trillion in lost human capital wealth. This is not just a moral failing; it is a significant economic misallocation often rooted at the household level.
On Peace (SDG 16): The foundations of cohesive societies are built on a child’s first experience of justice and safety, the home. When this first classroom teaches violence or exclusion, it can sow the seeds of future community strife.
We are treating symptoms. Our strategies are sophisticated, but they risk bypassing the core engine of socialisation and change: the family unit.
The Necessary Pivot: A Blueprint for Family-Centred Development
This is a call for a strategic evolution. As we mark UNGA80, we have an opportunity to pivot from a government-to-people model to a government-to-family strategy. Here is a four-point blueprint for action:
1. Legislate with a “Family Impact Lens”: Before enactment, every national policy, from infrastructure to tax codes, should be assessed for its impact on household resilience. Does it increase a family’s time poverty? Does it inadvertently reinforce gendered care burdens? Policy must be designed to build family capacity, not strain it.
2. Recognise Parents as Primary Human Capital Developers: The most efficient educational and health infrastructure we have is engaged parents. Public investment should be directed toward equipping them with tools and training, transforming them from passive recipients into empowered first responders for their children’s health, education, and wellbeing.
3. Treat Family-Friendly Policies as Core Economic Infrastructure: Paid parental leave, affordable childcare, and eldercare are not soft social policies. They are essential infrastructure for gender equality and economic productivity. They are a precondition for unlocking the full potential of half the population.
4. Devolve Power and Funding to Grassroots Family Organisations: Local, culturally-embedded groups are uniquely positioned to facilitate the trusted conversations needed to shift deep-seated family norms. They are the critical intermediaries between global goals and local reality.
The Irrefutable Proof
The results speak for themselves. In Bangladesh, a large female secondary-school stipend programme, together with community outreach and local education initiatives — led to substantial increases in girls’ secondary enrolment. In Ethiopia, community-based programmes (notably the Health Extension Program and local health volunteers) that expanded mothers’ access to basic health knowledge and services helped drive large reductions in child mortality.
This is the multiplier effect. Investing in a family is a force multiplier for the SDGs. An educated girl becomes a healthier mother, a wealthier entrepreneur, and a powerful agent for peace. A supportive family becomes a microcosm of a just and stable society.
As the deliberations begin at UNGA80, the message is clear: the road to 2030 must run through the living rooms and kitchen tables of every community. It is time for our global leadership to embrace this opportunity. Our shared future is being shaped at home. It is time we started strategically investing there.
Damilola Bakare is the author of “Building the Forever Home Bridge” and the founder of the Whole Child Institute, gamifying learning for kids and supporting Content writing skills in children.
She is a Communications for Development professional and passionate advocate for the role of families in shaping sustainable futures, she champions family-centred solutions as a critical yet often overlooked link in global development conversations.
