“I want to make sure that people know why their leaders are coming to New York in September,” says Thomas Gass. “It is not for the photo-op, but to promise to the people that the SDGs vision is for them.”

Join Thomas Gass on Twitter on Friday 10 July from 12 noon to 1 PM EDT. Tweet questions, comments and thoughts to @ThomasGass using #SDGsChat.

Taking aim at how we can turn our vision for 2030 into reality, Thomas Gass, UN DESA’s Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-agency Affair, invites the online community to take the floor and to share questions, comments and thoughts with him on the new proposed sustainable development goals (SDGs) using the hashtag #SDGsChat.

“The SDGs are a shared vision of humanity and must become the basis of a new social contract between governments and the people,” said Thomas Gass ahead of the Twitter chat. “We need to return to a ‘We the Peoples Agenda’,” he stressed.

The international community is at a turning point. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are nearing their finish line at the end of this year and at the upcoming UN Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda in September, a new set of sustainable development goals will be launched taking effect in 2015 and running through 2030.

What are the sustainable development goals; what steps must be taken to achieve them and what is the role of each one of us in this joint effort, as we are striving for an inclusive, prosperous and sustainable planet?

Discuss this with Thomas Gass on Twitter this Friday 10 July from 12 noon to 1 PM EDT. Remember to use #SDGsChat to share questions or comments!