The United Nations General Assembly agreed and approved in September 2015 the document "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", which contains a set of measures aiming to balance economic progress and protection of the environment, whilst at the same time remain aware of the need to address the many disparities still seen between industrialised and developing countries. The Agenda document consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which among many other tasks, intend to eradicate poverty and create better health conditions in both developed and developing countries. But despite the need for and the relevance of the SDGs, it is unclear how they may help to address present and future sustainability challenges. Based on the need to shed some light on such a relationship, this paper describes each of the SDGs, and offers an analysis of the extent to which their implementation may offer support to ongoing attempts to handle some of the pressing problems seen in pursuing sustainable development. Three case studies are presented to show in practice how best the SDGs can be handled. The paper concludes that the process of implementing the SDGs offers unrivalled opportunities to advance equal opportunity and foster economic empowerment, helping countries to promote the cause of sustainable development in their territories, hence benefitting their populations. .

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Higher education institutions (HEIs) have a fundamental role in transforming societies aimed at a more sustainable future. Through knowledge creation and dissemination, research, education and outreach, institutions of higher education lead the path towards sustainable development. The aim of this paper is to identify, based on a review of the literature, how HEIs promote sustainable development. An analysis of both international declarations and the scientific literature on education for sustainable development shows that emphasis is given to discussions on development, education, research, and training. This highlights the need for a stronger role of universities to promote sustainable development paths, expanding and disseminating knowledge, building capacity through training, and working with local communities to increase their resilience.

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