Introduction

The Interfaith Development Goals (IDGs) were initiated to fill a gap in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UN SDG16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) addresses, essentially, political and human rights issues; abuse, exploitation, trafficking, promoting the rule of law, reducing illicit financial and arms flows, reducing corruption and bribery, but it does not address or make reference to inter-religious and inter-cultural peace building.

Furthermore, the IDGs compliment the SDGs not only by including the interfaith sector but also by the fact that all 10 IDGs contribute and align with 5 of the SDGs (5, 10,11,16 &17).

The IDGs allow us to capture and demonstrate how religious, faith, spiritual and interfaith groups, their communities and leaders contribute to building peace and harmony around the world.

ACWAY consists of young people from more than 90 countries around the world, promoting interreligious and intercultural peace and understanding. These IDGS were developed over two and half years by young people from different faiths and cultural backgrounds with support from senior interfaith leaders. These goals have been adopted by ACWAY to align all our interfaith activities with the relevant IDGs.

We call on religious, faith, spiritual and interfaith communities and organizations to adopt these IDGs in their local, national and international work thus allowing for a more collaborative approach in achieving our common purpose – a more peaceful world for all.