Global goals for sustainable development will only be reached if everyone took them up as their own personal targets, President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said this afternoon.

Addressing a seminar by her Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, Ms Coleiro Preca urged everyone – from politicians to civil society – to move from words to actions.

This month marks a year from the launch of the Global Sustainable Development Goals, aimed at ending poverty and inequalities, and addressing climate change by 2030.

All 17 goals are being discussed by the foundation, and two targets - ending poverty and hunger – were tackled during a work-in-progress seminar today.

“It is not very often that we come together to speak of poverty and injustice as they are not sexy subject matters, but together we can make them more valid,” Ms Coleiro Preca told those present.

Founded in 2014, the foundation’s mission is to create safe spaces for significant dialogue where all voices can be heard and it was important that such discussions started focusing on implementation, she noted.

“We need to make these targets our own. The plan to reach them will only work if it is for all and with everyone's input… Social injustices create a dangerous nest were social exclusion manifests itself, eating at our social fabric. Social injustice threatens human dignity,” Ms Coleiro Preca said.

“The global targets are known and approved and it's our turn to focus on implementing them. I call on you all to be part of global change by making these global targets our personal targets,” she added.