European Development Days #EDD17 – Celebrating the SDGs and One UN

(Top image: UN colleagues & Young Leaders with Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Belgians / UNRIC)

Organised by the European Commission, the European Development Days (EDD) is Europe’s leading forum on development since 2006. The development community comes together every year to share ideas and experiences in ways that inspire new partnerships and innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. This year’s edition took place on 6-8 June, 2017 in Brussels.

Young Leaders & UN Colleagues with Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General / UNRIC
Visitors experience virtual reality at the UN stand at European Development Days / UN SDG Action Campaign

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals stand at the European Development Days included a wide range of exciting and innovative features such as the #SDGstudio, virtual reality films, touch-screens showcasing data visualizations and polling mechanisms on the SDGs, and a selfie photobooth to invite visitors to show their commitment and take action on the Goals.

Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Belgians & Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, explore MY World 2030 data / UN SDG Action Campaign
Anand Kantaria, UN SDG Action Campaign, shows MY World 2030 to Queen Mathilde of the Belgians & Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium

The UN stand is organized by the UN SDG Action Campaign, the UN in Brussels (25 UN entities), UNECE and the World Bank. Occupying a central space at the European Development Days global village, the UN SDG stand is a convening space to engage thousands of visitors on the Sustainable Development Goals and showcase the efforts of the United Nations and its partners around the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General takes the MY World 2030 survey: myworld2030.org / UNRIC

During the European Development Days:

  • Thousands of people visited the United Nations stand, with active participation of several hundreds per day (in total there were 8000 participants attending EDDs)
  • There were 35 #SDGStudio dialogues! 16 on Day 1 and 19 on Day 2. 
  • The United Nations was involved in more than 50 out of the 120 EDD sessions
  • More than 90 UN colleagues were hosts at the UN Stand, inviting delegates and showcasing SDG innovation
  • Around 350 people took a selfie at the photobooth 
#SDGstudio / UN SDG Action Campaign
UN colleagues with Professor Muhammad Yunus, Founder, Grameen Bank & SDG Advocate / UNRIC

The #SDGStudio was a new and exciting feature of the United Nations stand, which is a unique platform to generate informal and insightful inter-generational dialogues between young leaders and high-level officials from the United Nations, the European Commission and a wide range of other institutions present at the EDDs. The #SDGstudio was proud to host the following dialogues:

In addition to the above guests who visited the #SDGstudio, the UN stand also welcomed the following visitors:

  • Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Belgians & SDG Advocate
  • Professor Muhammad Yunus, Founder, Grameen Bank & SDG Advocate
  • Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever & SDG Advocate
  • Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank
Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General and Dr. Alaa Murabit, SDG Advocate hug each other at the UN stand, as Thomas Gass, UN Assistant Secretary, DESA looks on / UNRIC
UN Colleagues at the photo booth
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General elect, WHO & Kalaba Nkonde, EDD Young Leader & Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety. They put their hands together in solidarity for the SDGs / UN SDG Action Campaign
UN stand / UNRIC
Professor Muhammad Yunus, Founder, Grameen Bank & SDG Advocate, learns about MY World 2030 from Anand Kantaria, UN SDG Action Campaign / UN SDG Action Campaign
Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, Ibero-American Conference (SEGIB) at the #SDGstudio / UNRIC
Xavier Longan, UN SDG Action Campaign welcomes Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Belgians to the UN stand / UN SDG Action Campaign
Leonardo Parraga, EDD Young Leader takes a selfie with Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium / UNRIC
Nadir Nahdi, BENI Founder & Youtube Creator for Change Fellow, presents at the #SDGstudio / UN SDG Action Campaign
Dream team! UN family with colleagues from the UN SDG Action Campaign, UN Brussels and UNRIC / UN SDG Action Campaign

View more photos: UNRIC Gallery / SDG Gallery