About Us
This website is part of a joint media project of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate Japan (Formerly Inter Press Service Japan) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI) aimed to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at the UN to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change by 2030, while ensuring that no one is left behind.
Launched in April 2016, this project promotes the idea of SDGs and facilitates discussions around its vision, raises public awareness of relevant efforts and initiatives, and helps expand the involvement of people in achieving the SDGs at local, national, regional and global level. The project also supports ongoing international efforts such as the Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (2014-2019).
The SGI is a worldwide Buddhist network, which promotes peace, culture and education through personal transformation and social contribution in 192 countries and territories. INPS is dedicated to enhancing the role of information as an agent for change under the banner, Beyond Breaking the News.
The SGI promotes Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) among general public through efforts such as the exhibition “Seeds of Hope” in support of the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-14) and the film “A Quiet Revolution” created by the Earth Council in cooperation with UNDP and UNEP, supported by SGI. Those activities are inspired by the SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s proposals which highlight the importance of creating a sustainable society, including the one titled “For a Sustainable Global Society: Learning for Empowerment and Leadership” in 2012.
The SDG’s principle of leaving no one behind deeply resonates with the SGI’s spirit of treasuring each individual based on the Buddhist teachings. In his 2016 peace proposal, late President Ikeda stated that “It is my personal conviction that dialogue is essential if we are to build a world in which no one is left behind. To successfully meet the challenges facing humankind, it is vital to continually revisit such questions as what it is that we must protect, who is going to protect it, and how. We must start from the perspective of those most severely impacted and work with them to find paths toward resolution. Dialogue provides the framework for this.”
INPS Japan (Formerly IPS Japan) and SGI had implemented a joint madia project with Inter Press Service (IPS) focusing on "Education for Global Citizenship" in 2014 and 2015. The media project also focused on Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) which were going to be replaced by new global development goals which now we know as SDGs. Therefore, the project website includes project articles produced by IPS and InDepthNews (IDN) during the "Education for Global Citizenship" media project. INPS Japan, which is an independent and a founding member of Non-profit INPS group, has subcontracted with INPS gGmbH (Formerly Globalom Media) which publishes IDN to implement the media project since 2016.