Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by listening to children's voices across the globe

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a global agenda for achieving a sustainable future for people and the planet to inform decision and policy making at all levels. Children should have a significant voice in shaping the world they will inherit; indeed, SDG 17 is focussed on partnership for the goals. The aim of the present study was to investigate which SDGs are depicted in children's drawings of themselves talking to provide researchers and policy makers insights into their perceptions about, and solutions for, the SDGs. The Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery ( https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-voices ) included 200 drawings from children from 24 countries. Children aged 2–12 years responded to the online prompt ‘draw yourself talking’ and submitted their drawing and explanation. A 15-member interdisciplinary research team analysed the drawings to determine their alignment with the seventeen SDGs. Most of the 200 drawings ( n = 191, 95.5%) could be coded with at least one SDG. Overall, there were 359 representations of SDGs coded across the data set of 200 drawings. Many children included green public spaces and housing (SDG 11), education (SDG 4), and decision-making (SDG 16) while others portrayed reducing inequality (SDG 10) and addressing poverty (SDG 1). This research demonstrated that children may be implicitly aware of factors related to the Sustainable Development Goals across their lives and provides an exemplar of how children's voices could be included using arts-based methods.