Developing Intercultural Skills to Advance the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN’s SDGs) articulate urgent global challenges that will require global solutions. For these solutions to be discovered, designed and implemented, a key construct is having well-honed intercultural skills. For problems as complex, solutions require a systematic and logical approach. This chapter presents the application of STEM design methods, such as design thinking and systems thinking, to a people-based challenge. Given the widely-understood definitions of systems thinking and design thinking methods, from a systems thinking synthesis perspective, global challenges are a system wide set of planetary problems that require urgent solutions at a global level. From a design thinking analysis perspective, the critical need is to grow intercultural e0ectiveness through study, work, co-curricular and extra-curricular experiences. Through several global case studies, this chapter will demonstrate how intentional inclusion of intercultural skills education builds individuals who are better prepared to engage with global challenges.