17 goals. 169 targets.

Last Friday, the 193 United Nations (UN) member states adopted the much-anticipated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It looks like a lot, but these goals are not like their predecessor, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – 8 goals that applied solely to developing countries with the support of wealthier nations.

Also known as the Global Goals, the SDGs are the responsibility of every nation – whether developing or developed – to “end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all” by 2030.

The MDGs presented great triumphs and challenges, which you can read about in an earlier blog here.

With the SDGs, we’re committing afresh to “a sustainable development agenda that must finish the job and leave no one behind.”

Not only do Opportunity’s programs help meet traditional goals like no poverty (Goal 1) and clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), I’m encouraged that there is now a stand-alone goal to ensure financial inclusion for all (Goal 8).

Goal 8 aims to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all. Why? Because:

Nearly 2.2 billion people live below the US$2 poverty line and poverty eradication is only possible through stable and well-paid jobs.

Goal 8 encapsulates Opportunity’s mission of providing financial solutions and training to empower people living in poverty to transform their lives, their children’s futures and their communities.

Target 8.3 focuses on promoting development-oriented policies that support “productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalisation and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.”

Opportunity is currently reaching more than 3 million entrepreneurs in developing countries in Asia with small loans to help them start their own small businesses and rewrite their futures. Time and again, the entrepreneurs I meet are creative, productive and strive to grow their businesses to help give their children a life free from poverty.

Target 8.10 focuses on strengthening the capacity of domestic financial institutions to “encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all.”

That’s what we’re working towards, too. The Opportunity International Network currently partners with more than 40 microfinance institutions worldwide to reach as many people living in poverty as possible with much-needed loans, savings, insurance, training and a range of other community development projects.

And we want to work ourselves out of a job by the SDG deadline of 2030.

We’re working to see our vision become a reality: a world in which all people have the opportunity to achieve a life free from poverty, with dignity and purpose.

And it’s thanks to you that we’re able to move ever-closer to a poverty-free world.

For mothers like Geeta, who once struggled to feed and educate her children, your support was able to help her buy goats to start a business selling milk, earning a regular income so she could provide for her family on a daily basis.

Help ensure that the only thing left behind by 2030 is a world with little in the way of income or job opportunities for families in need.

Follow Opportunity International Australia CEO Robert Dunn on Twitter and LinkedIn.