In 2015 the countries off the world came to a unified vision for a better world for all: The Sustainable Development Goals. A screening of a new, updated version of The Agreement, a film about the painstaking work it took to get there, took place at the SDG Pavilion on Saturday.

The documentary focuses on the efforts of Amina J. Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General, to gain consensus and get the Goals adopted. In remarks before the screening, Ms. Mohammed said that the event was like a reunion of friends, surveying the crowd and seeing many of the colleagues who had helped to drive through the adoption of the SDGs.

Reminiscing about the negotiations, the Deputy Secretary-General said that it often felt as if it was one step forward, 10 steps back. But, she added, the UN System rose to the occasion. 

“With seven more years to go [until the 2030 deadline],” she said, “I hope this movie will inspire people, remind them what it took to get the agreement through, and take the next steps.”

Fergal Mythen, Ireland’s Ambassador to the United Nations, acknowledged the huge difficulty of achieving multilateral agreements, but the negotiations showed that it can be done.

“No Member State ever said that the SDGs were the wrong agenda or analysis,” he said. “Everyone agreed and endorsed them. The SDGs are the best hope for humanity”.

Following the screening of the film, the director, Raeshem Nijhon, and Executive Producer John McArthur, joined Ms. Mohammed, and some of the people who took part in the negotiations: David Donoghue, former Permanent Representative of Ireland to the UN, was Co-Facilitator of the Intergovernmental negotiations on the 2030 Agenda; Elizabeth Cousens, currently the President and CEO of the UN Foundation, was US Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council during the negotiations; and Nikhil Seth, the Executive Director of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), was the Director of the Division for Sustainable Development, at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

The panel discussed their desire to capture and tell the true story of how the negotiations took place. 

Mr. Seth expressed his feeling of nostalgia, of “being in the trenches for three years, working with wonderful leaders through agony and ecstasy,” whilst Ms. Mohammed said that the film was a reminder of why we need the SDGs.

“We haven’t done what we should and could have done,” she said. “We need to take another step forward and keep the promise we made to billions of people.”

In closing remarks, Alya Ahmed Saif Al Thani, Permanent Representative of Qatar to the UN, said that the film depicts the shared commitments that underpin one of most significant agreements in UN history.

She compared the process to the drafting of the SDG Summit political declaration. “The negotiations were painful, but it’s worth every moment. It’s never a waste of our time, because every word counts.”

The world premiere was co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of Ireland, the Permanent Mission of Qatar, and UN Office for Partnerships, at the SDG Pavilion on the North Lawn of the United Nations Headquarters in New York. 

The Agreement was directed by Raeshem Nijhon, and produced by Nicole Galovski of Culture House. John W McArthur, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution, was an Executive Producer.

The world premiere was co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of Ireland, the Permanent Mission of Qatar, and UN Office for Partnerships, at the SDG Pavilion on the North Lawn of the United Nations Headquarters in New York. 

The Agreement was directed by Raeshem Nijhon, and produced by Nicole Galovski of Culture House. John W McArthur, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution, was an Executive Producer.

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