UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – I nside the United Nations, hallways and office hum with preparations for this week’s meeting of nearly 200 nations to adopt a set of global goals aimed at tackling a range of ills from poverty to climate change over the next 15 years.

On the sidewalk outside the famed U.N. building on Manhattan’s East Side, a mention of the 17 lofty Sustainable Developments Goal, referred to widely as the SDGs, has far less resonance.

“SDGs? You’ll have to tell me what that stands for,” said Victoria Dillon, a tourist from West Virginia, exchanging blank looks with her daughter.