UN SDG Action Campaign

Jagriti Yatra 2015 – Train ride for a better world

Written by Sailesh Singhal

Ever wonder what can happen on an epic train ride across India to talk about the SDGs? Here’s your answer! I was a part of a Jagriti Yatra journey with 449 other young people to 12 destinations in India to share news on the SDGs and the World We Want. A Yatra takes us along the major challenges and help us shape our own ideas. It dives into the rich cultural heritage that our country is honored with and experience the shift in climate as the train proceeds from South to North. The Yatra is the germinating ground for ideas and exchange of culture. It is a place where individuals from different backgrounds come together and feel the responsibility of being the change. Fifteen years is what we have to create a better society and youth is the Only Catalyst. Yatra teaches us the best to way to contribute. Get down to the society and get our hands dirty!

Journey with a Vision
Jagriti Yatra is a 15 days, 8000 km world’s largest national train journey, which takes selected youth to meet the role models who are developing unique solutions to India’s developmental challenges. It attracts 17,000 registrations through India and some parts of the world of which only 450 of the most qualified are selected for the journey. The train stops in 12 locations and youth delegates have the opportunity to personally meet exceptional change-makers who are transforming India.

Jagriti Yatra has been a transformational journey, which aimed for an equal representation of young women and men to achieve the Planet 50-50 by 2030. Jagriti Yatra had 40% girls and women representation in 2015. During my Yatra (Journey), I had been advocating for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World We Want platform. Sustainable Development Goals need to be trickled down in the society through the youth body channels and it’s very important for youth to know about the SDGs. Unfortunately, a minority of us know about our vision of 2030. Thereby, it’s essential for us to show a clear vision of the next 15 years before we actually jump right into achieving the goals.

Advocating about SDGs and World We Want

Gender Equality is not a short-term goal. However, we need to start bringing a shift in the mentality of the people from today by talking about the equal opportunities.

Through the MY World 2015 Survey, we can see that of the 902,300 people who have voted in India, over 400,000 prioritized Equality between men and women, making Gender Equality the number 5 most prioritized issue in the survey.

Young women and men are the carriers of our vision and we need to engage discussions with more young people. The role of young people is not only important as actors in attaining gender equality, but also as partners in creating a world that is equal if we want to achieve the goal of planet 50-50 by the year 2030. Campaigns such as HeForShe, MARD, #YouthForGenderEquality need strengthening as we move towards the SDGs.

Founder of Innokul commits to Goal 5 vision

Life on the train is as busy as it gets! With a packed schedule of debates, presentations and conversations, and a blend of art, music and poetry, Yatris find themselves fully involved at all times. The Yatra sets out to be a life changing experience for us to catalyse that shift in mindset. Not only to you but through you, to millions of youth who are watching this expedition as it curves across this great and beautiful land of ours. When we hear how our inspiring role models have created their institutions surmounting all odds; when we hear of the stories of leadership and courage from our co-travellers, we discovered an India that waits to be unleashed. You are that dynamic spirit that will unleash a new society.

We the People’s Hub China Moment

By Di Cao-Youth Advocate of UN Millennium Campaign

During the 70th UN General Assembly, the UN Millennium Campaign (UNMC) together with our important partners from Chinese civil society organized a series of events to further engage Chinese NGOs in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With one-fifth of the world’s population, China has achieved the Millennium Development Goals in seven development indicators ahead of time, including poverty reduction, halving the hungry population, universal primary education, eliminating gender discrimination in primary and secondary education, reducing under-five mortality, tuberculosis and malaria prevention and control, safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities. The direction of China’s future development endeavors and the degree of its commitment to global public goods will have a significant impact on the entire international community.

Director of the UNMC Mitchell Toomey and Secretary General of China NGO Network for International Exchanges You Jianhua

On September 18th, 2015, UNMC supported the China NGO Network for International Exchange (CNIE), the China All-Women Entrepreneurs (CAWE), and the China Great Wall Society (CGWS), in organizing “Balance and Sustainability: Chinese Civil Organizations Support Global Development Agenda” Roundtable in the UN Headquarters in New York City. Guests from the UN, government, private sector, and civil society from around the world attended the meeting. Keynote speakers from various professions shared their experiences and inspiring ideas about the SDGs: Mr. Yang Xiaoping, Vice President of Charoen Pokphand Group, talked about the innovation PPP model in developing modern agriculture; Mr. Huang Haoming, Vice Chairman, Executive Director of China Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO), shared his research on activating the role of NGO in helping government to achieve poverty reduction goals. Chinese civil society has been actively involved in the implementation of the MDGs in the past. As the SDGs are about to launch at the time, a new proposal of Chinese civil organizations on the implementation of the post-2015 global development agenda was presented during the GA.

Attendees of “Balance and Sustainability: Chinese Civil Organizations Support Global Development Agenda” Roundtable

Following the roundtable, UNMC welcomed the Chinese delegation to hold a moment in the We the Peoples’ Hub to present significant achievements of China implementing the MDGs such as climate change and affordable energy from the NGO’s perspective. This moment also served as a platform for conversation between the UN and Chinese civil society on SDGs as well as the moving forward partnership.

Director of the UNMC Mitchell Toomey and guest speakers from Chinese civil society in We the People Hub

Youth advocates from YouThink

To bring a human perspective to the development agenda of China, UNMC showcased Humans of MY World in China, which featured the voices of various vulnerable communities and marginalized individuals in the country, including low-income groups, migrant workers, children and youth. During the China Moment, these stories were exhibited to a global audience through multi-media tools. The stories are also available on https://twitter.com/myworld2015

Virtual Reality Films Screened at Athletics for a Better World

By Di Cao – Global Youth Advocate at the UN Millennium Campaign

(L-R) Olympic Champions and IAAF Ambassadors, Joanna Hayers and Dwight Phillips, IAAF President Lamine Diack, UNDP Country Director Agi Veres & UNDP Head of Policy and Partnerships Hannah Ryder.

UNDP and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) co-hosted a celebration of the social responsibility program Athletics for a Better World (ABW) in Beijing’s iconic Bird’s Nest stadium on Aug 26th during the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015. The two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding to celebrate international partnerships in sports and cooperate to promote sustainable, inclusive human development to make the world a better place. This reception is a series of events UNDP is hosting to celebrate the UN Day for South South Cooperation.

UNDP invited members of the Beijing international diplomatic community to attend the event, which included delegates and representatives from over 40 Countries and many partner organizations. The Virtual Reality film screening became the highlight of the night. The UN Millennium Campaign office brought two VR films to the audience to demonstrate global development challenges from around the world. Launched in early 2015, the film Clouds Over Sidra follows the life of a young girl living in the Za’atari Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. Waves of Grace features a community’s recovery amid the Ebola epidemic. Both films were designed to support the UNMC’s efforts to highlight the plight of vulnerable communities.

Attendees explored the ground-breaking technology through the virtual reality headsets with enormous passion, and the powerful, immersive watching experience brought the real lives of people in Jordan and Liberia straight to the Bird’s Nest. The audience were profoundly moved and gained deeper empathy of vulnerable communities.

“The most amazing watching experience ever before.” Exclaimed one diplomat working in Beijing after watching the VR Film. He added, “It’s like they are looking at me and talking to me, they are around me.”

As the world’s second largest economy, China achieved many of the Millennium Development Goals ahead of schedule, and has become increasingly important in the overall global performance on the newly approved Sustainable Development Goals. In the MY World Global Survey, which aims to link voices of citizens to global leaders during the process of defining the new development agenda, Chinese people contributed 321,395 votes with a high level of involvement of youth. Better transportation and roads, support people who can’t work are the two most popular priorities among Chinese voters.

Clouds Over Sidra Screened at World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of New Champions

8bd5fef5a3342a46f94498d517128ce3 — Guests at World Economic Forum watching Clouds Over Sidra.

From September 10th-12th, the Millennium Campaign had the pleasure to present a Virtual Reality screening of the film, Clouds Over Sidra at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015 in Dalian, China.

Clouds Over Sidra,which was created to support the United Nations Secretary-General’s MDG Advocacy Group’s call for partnerships to build resilience in vulnerable communities, immerses the viewer in the life of Sidra, a young Syrian girl living in the Za’atari Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. Gabo Arora — one of the co-creators of Clouds Over Sidra — says that the inspiration behind the project was to use virtual reality to give a platform for viewers to gain a better grasp of the conditions in camps like Za’atari stating, “if we used virtual reality and made them actually walk in [Sidra’s] shoes…. they would care and be moved to action”.

The event used Samsung Gear VR headsets to give people the opportunity to experience the daily life of one of the many children whose lives have been changed dramatically by the conflict in small groups. These intimate screenings were followed up with a Q&A session moderated by Arora along with Dr. Wei Kunlin, Associate Professor at Peking University, Olivier Oullier, Professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at Aix-Marseille University; and Yobie Benjamin, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer of Avegant Corporation. The Q&A session discussed the impact virtual reality can have on outreach and advocacy for global issues such as the Syria Conflict that would otherwise be impossible with conventional forms of media.

6d406841460189bf91c848b8ad37f50d — Co-director and producer Gabo Arora discussing the importance of Virtual Reality films like Clouds Over Sidra in bringing a human element to conflict crises.

In addition, the WEF took the screening as an opportunity to announce their plans to fund the translation of Clouds Over Sidra into Mandarin, bringing further light to a vital issue both to influential decision makers as well as the general public.

Peoples’ Voices Celebrated During Eco Forum Global in China

UNMC was delighted to join Youthink Center to participate in the Eco Forum Global Annual Conference Guiyang 2015. This was held in June 2015 in Guiyang, China. During the conference, an interactive space featured an exhibition of people from around the world who prioritized eco-friendly options in the UN MY World Global survey, the virtual reality experience – Clouds Over Sidra, and a touchscreen that visualize peoples’ voices hosted on the World We Want platform.

People young and old, from NGOs, civil society, youth-led organizations, the media, universities and the government watched Clouds Over Sidra, the story of a 12 year-old girl, with absorbed fascination. “This is like being inside a movie!” said one young man from the media after watching the film. As most of the conference participants have never been to Syria or stepped into a refugee camp, many have commented on how this is perhaps the only way they would only be able to meet someone like Sidra.

The Eco Forum Global was first launched in China, and approved by the state with “ecological civilization” as the theme of this international high-end summit. The forum is dedicated to bring together representatives from government, business, academia, science and technology, media, nongovernmental, and other community leaders to carry out exchanges and cooperation, spread the concept of ecological civilization, and share knowledge and experience. For the UNMC, the Eco Forum Global offered an unique opportunity to showcase MY World data collected from around the world, highlighting those who prioritize “Action taken on climate change”, “Protecting forests, rivers and oceans”, and “Access to clean water and sanitation”. Through the Humans of MY World exhibition, forum attendees were able to meet a young man from Puerto Princesa in the Philippines, who said “The ocean is everything for me. it’s my job. It’s my life. If you put trash in this water you may as well be putting it inside my home. I can’t stand for that.” Continue reading “Peoples’ Voices Celebrated During Eco Forum Global in China”

UNMC Brings 8 Million Peoples’ Voices to Bangkok, Thailand

ESCAP Youth Volunteers Celebrate 7 Million Voices and the Peoples' Voices Challenge! — ESCAP Youth Volunteers Celebrate 7 Million Voices and the Peoples’ Voices Challenge!

As “We the Peoples” Data Playground World Tour kicks into high gear in preparation for the 70^th UN General Assembly and the announcement of the post-2015 development agenda, we showcased peoples’ voices through cutting-edge technology at the Asia Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development 2015 (APFSD 2015) and the 71^st Session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

From May 25-29, 2015, the UN Millennium Campaign, in partnership with UNESCAP, UN Volunteers, UNDP, P&G, and Samsung, hosted an interactive Data Playground. Delegates from around the world explored the MY World data, participated in the special screening of the virtual reality film, Clouds of Sidra, reviewed the Humans of MY World (HOMY) photo exhibition, and were invited to join the Peoples’ Voices Challenge.

Bangkok 2 — APFSD 2015 delegates looking through MY World results

Bangkok 3 — World We Want data visualization fascinates delegates

Diplomats, academics, ministers and delegates used Samsung touchscreen technology to disaggregate the MY World Dataset by region, country, gender, education levels, age groups and HDI and live data visualizations on the global, regional, and local post-2015 conversation on the World We Want were highlighted.

Out of the over 7.5 million people who have voted in the MY World survey, approximately 3.13 million people, or over 41%, are from the Asia-Pacific Region. Using data, policy makers were able to answer the question on everyone’s mind: what kind of world do Asians really want? They discovered in Asia that the top priorities are “A good education”, “Better healthcare”, and “An honest and responsive government”.

We believe that behind every MY World vote there’s a personal story that deserves to be told. That is why with the HOMY exhibition, we wanted to go one step further and look beyond the data to help policy makers understand WHY people have voted the way they have? What is the reason for choosing one priority above the other 15 priorities?

Bangkok 5 — Presenting the HOMY exhibition to the Prime Minister of Thailand, H.E. Mr. Prayut Chan-o-cha

Sponsored by P&G, the beautiful HOMY exhibition featured MY World voters from different backgrounds. A woman from the transgender community in Manila, the Philippines spoke to policy makers through HOMY. She chose “Freedom from discrimination and persecution” as her top priority because she “wants a whole world without discrimination. Being different means being hurt. On the inside, and maybe the outside as well. I pray it won’t always be like that.” We had the distinct honor to present the HOMY exhibition to the Prime Minister of Thailand, H.E. Mr. Prayut Chan-o-cha.

Bangkok 10 — Executive Secretary of ESCAP H.E. Shamshad Akhtar Experiences Virtual Reality

Recently, we initiated a project to bring the world’s most pressing challenges home to decision makers and global citizens around the world through Virtual Reality (VR). VR allowed APFSD 2015 and Regional Commission delegatsd to meet a 12-year old Syrian girl named Sidra living in a refugee camp. Sidra took them on a tour of her new home, into her new classroom, and brought them to dinner with her family. As the first UN virtual reality documentary, we wanted to push the boundaries of empathy by bringing humanity to the front of the global development discussion. The VR film had a profound affect over her audience, one delegate said after watching that Clouds Over Sidra is the “most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life”.

Bangkok 12 — Clouds Over Sidra brings audience into another universe

Peoples Voices at the World Education Forum

For the past two and a half years, the United Nations has asked people around the world to tell them what matters most to their lives. Thus far, 4.9 million of the 7.5 million people who voted in the MY World Global Survey have chosen “A better education”. This trend is true regardless of age, gender, education level and is similar across most countries in the world.

From May 18-21, we partnered with UNICEF in the production of an exhibit to amplify the voices of people around the world at the 2015 World Education Forum in Incheon, South Korea. The forum, co-convened by UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHCR & UN Women, brought together stakeholders from all sectors to look at achievements and shortfalls from the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All targets. Participants agreed on the Incheon Declaration which sets out a renewed vision in education, one that aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all.

The exhibit featured data visualizations on the importance of education for people around the world, such as the MY World dataset, MY World priority heat map, UN Global Pulse MY World Twitter mapping, World We Want key word visualisations, and stories of why people voted for education through the Humans of MY World communications campaign. UNICEF showcased two innovations targeting the out-of-school children: Raspberry Pi Learning Initiative from Lebanon provides non-formal education to the millions of displaced children as a result of the Syrian crisis, and E-learning, offers accelerated learning opportunities to some of the 1.8 million out-of-school children in Sudan.

Executive Directors Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka UN Women and Irina Bokova, UNESCO visit the exhibit

The exhibition centered around Clouds Over Sidra, a virtual reality experience about the daily life of a Syrian refugee. Clouds Over Sidra tells the story of a 12 year old Syrian refugee living in the Za’atari Camp in Jordan. Sidra talks about the important support structures in the camp, including education, football for girls, wrestling and computer labs for the boys. She also talks about the children who don’t use these support structures:

Some kids don’t go to school. They want to wait until we are back home in Syria. I think it’s silly to wait. How will they remember anything? And there is nothing to do here anyway.

Continue reading “Peoples Voices at the World Education Forum”

“我的世界”调查| 数据告诉你大家到底关心什么! Youthink China Survey Data Shows What People Really Care About

By Evonne Tang, Youthink Center
(English Translation by Alice Chen, UN Millennium Campaign)

Initiated by the United Nations, the “MY World” survey has been going on for over a month’s time in China through the outreach of Youthink Center and many other partners. So far, we have not only assembled a large team of volunteers, but also encouraged more regions in China to participate, improving the “MY World” survey’s overall participation.

Volunteers come from all over the world, including the 27 provinces and four municipalities, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions, and the U.S. and the U.K., most of which are volunteers from Beijing.

: This map of China shows the top 10 regions/areas with the largest number of volunteers collecting the survey — This map of China shows the top 10 regions/areas with the largest number of MY World volunteers collecting the survey

“My World” survey data is also very interesting. Look at the overall survey ranking: Globally, “MY World” has over 7.26 million responses; Mexico so far has the greatest number of responses, totaling more than 1.58 million votes (1.5% of the total population).

China (as of March 20) has a voter turnout of nearly 80,000 people, putting China at the 8^th spot in terms of country votes. However, because of China’s huge population base, this figure could become even greater. Through our efforts, if we can get more people to participate in activities, China will become a force to be reckoned with in the MY World survey.

Country rankings based on number of MY World votes

Looking at the global data, the highest priority is “A better education.” However, the top Chinese vote is for “Better roads and traffic.” (Perhaps this is because of the hordes of people who are squeezed tightly on the subway, or because the roads are often blocked, so this vote might reflect voters in China are not very satisfied with the current state of traffic and transportation, which can improve). Continue reading ““我的世界”调查| 数据告诉你大家到底关心什么! Youthink China Survey Data Shows What People Really Care About”

Volunteers in China Collect Over 70,000 Votes in 2 Weeks!

By Evonne Tang from Youthink Center

The Chinese youth-led organization YouThink has taken on an amazing initiative to collect MY World votes and their results have been astounding: in 2 weeks more than 3,000 volunteers in China have collected over 70,000 votes—with more offline votes yet to be counted! One volunteer, Cheng Yachan, was able to collect an astounding 1,739 votes—the highest number of votes collected by an individual!

These votes have been collected not only from mainland of China, but also from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The top three provinces with the greatest number of volunteers were Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai. Additionally, Chinese students who are studying abroad, in countries like the United States, Britain, and France also have helped to collect survey results.

Reaching Everyone

How are volunteers getting the world out? Some volunteers have utilized social networks, messaging apps, and student unions/clubs. In order to help spread ideas and promote this kind of creative collaboration, YouThink set up several chats on QQ (an instant messaging app) that the volunteers can communicate across.

One adventurous volunteer went offline to make sure that everyone’s voices are heard. This volunteer from Yunnan province in China traveled deep into the mountains in order to collect the voices of minority ethnic groups in remote areas. Because a number of these villagers were illiterate, the volunteer had to read out all of the options and explain them to everyone. By collecting these voices, volunteers like this one are helping to ensure that the survey truly reflects the people’ ‘voices. According to the volunteer, “I may not able to drive the survey forward as quickly as I would have if I had done it online, but this should be the idea of the MY Word Survey: each individual should have their voice heard.”

In order to promote and reward this kind of passion and drive, YouThink will have awards for some of their most devoted volunteers. Winners will not necessarily be judged on how many votes they collected, but how they embodied the spirit of the MY World survey. YouThink is calling on their volunteers to send in their stories, videos and pictures, telling us how they feel and what they think about the MY World Survey.

China Results

It’s interesting that in China, their number one priority is “Better transport and roads,” and second is “Support for people who can’t work,” which is very different from the global priority. “Climate change” and” Access to clean water and sanitation” are also high up (Top 5), much higher compared to global priorities.

Background data available from www.myworld2015.cn

Filipinos in Baguio City have their say on MY World

On 23-27 February 2015, Ms. Rubeliza Castañeda, a volunteer with the World Youth Foundation collected 50 offline votes in the community where she live at Baguio City, Cordillera Administrative Region and this is her story:

“I started the survey on 23rd February 2015 with my family and some of neighbors. Then, I conducted my planned door-to-door survey in my community. Unfortunately, it was harder than I expected. A lot of people were reluctant to participate. Some were busy and didn’t want to be disturbed while some were simply uninterested. Fortunately, there were FIFTY people who were gracious enough to spare their time and shared their voices. Although they didn’t know what the Millennium Development Goals are nor how they were developed, they are now part of the new development agenda that is coming alive. It was true that I didn’t reach my target of collecting 500 votes but I had learned a lot from this unforgettable experience. I hope all of the 50 wonderful people will think they have made the right choices when they recall back the day they took they survey.”

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