Tag: Global Day of Action

A million people in every corner of the world mobilizing to #act4SDGs at the UN General Assembly

On 25 September 2018, a million people in over 1300 cities in 165 countries in actions led by 1800 individuals and organizations took part in a worldwide mass mobilization for the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Mangrove restoration in Brazil, top chefs competing to re-discover forgotten foods in New York, or beach clean ups in the Maldives are some of the SDG actions organisations and individuals organized, encouraging a global movement for the achievement of the SDGs.

View highlights



The Global Day to #act4SDGs coincided with the opening of the UN General Assembly, which presented a unique opportunity to amplify the actions being taken across the world and bring them to the attention of world leaders. See the Global Action Hour which was broadcast live at the SDG Action Zone.http://act4sdgs.org 

Speakers: 

  • Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations via video message
  • HE Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria, via video message
  • Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice President of the EU Commission via video message
  • Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
  • Mitchell Toomey, Director, UN SDG Action Campaign
  • Cristina Gallach, High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda of Spain
  • Oli Henman, Global Coordinator, Action for Sustainable Development

Introducing:

PROGRAMME:

  • Welcome and Introduction to the Global Day to Act4SDGs
    Mitchell Toomey, Director, United Nations SDG Action Campaign
  • Taking Engagement Forward
    Video message from Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy & Vice President of the EU Commission
  • Global Day as it happens
    Moderator – Yusuf Omar, Founder of Hashtag Our Stories
  • Cleaning up polluted beaches and building cultural bridges in the Maldives
    Where: Malé, Maldives,
    By: Peace Boat, JCI Kaafu
    Presented by Yoskihoka Tatsuya, Co-Founder and Director, Peace Boat
  • 450 SDG Changemakers turn ideas into daily practice in Amsterdam
    Where: Amsterdam, Netherlands
    By: SDG Charter, KIT Royal Tropical Institute, Municipality of Amsterdam and NCDO
    Presented by Jilt Van Schayik, UN SDG Action Campaign and former Dutch Youth Delegate
  • Climate question from Patricia Espinosa, UNFCCC Executive Secretary
  • 200 organisations in Italy join forces to viralize sustainable development
    Where: Italy
    By Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS)
    Video
  • Empowering Youth to tackle Health and Peace through Creativity
    Where: Nigeria
    By: Creative Youth, Covenant University
    Presented by Foluke Michael from Creative Youth Development Initiative and UN SDG Action Award Winner
  • World’s Largest Photo Book to capture youth stories from Nigeria’s Informal Settlements
    Where: Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria
    Canon, Slum- Art Project
    Video
  • Reducing Carbon Emissions through Mangrove Restoration in Rio
    Where: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
    By: Instituto Mar Urbano, UNDP RIO+Centre
    Video
  • Top chefs compete to highlight forgotten foods
    Where: New York City, United States
    By: Food Forever Experience NYC, Crop Trust
    Presented by Erik Oberholtzer, Chef and Founder of Tender Greens
  • Government, civil society and local fisherfolk join forces to tackling ocean pollution
    Where: Philippines
    By: GCAP Philippines
    Presented by Becky Malay, GCAP Philippines on Video
  • 26 youth advocates capture citizens views on the SDGs in Asia
    Where: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam
    By: ASEAN MY World 2030 Initiative, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub and UNV Asia-Pacific
    Video
  • Building spaces for Orphans to Play
    Where: Morocco
    By: Bloom Charity
    Video
  • Hashtag Our Stories
    Yusuf Omar, Founder
  • Guatemalan students from indigenous communities show that big SDG changes can come in small sizes
    Where: Guatemala city
    By: Education for Sharing
    Video
  • Week of Action for SDGs Brings people together across Mexico
    Where: México
    By: MY World México
    Presented by Karol Arambula, Founder, MYWorld Mexico
  • 200 Youth Discuss citizen engagement and open democracies in Peru
    Where: Lima, Perú
    By: Millennials Movement
    Video
  • Young people share their SDG 360° videos from Brazil, Kenya, Germany & the United States
    By: Digital Promise, Oculus, MY World 360
    Presented by Dimitri Moore, Digital Promise and Christina Jackson, Oculus
  • Promoting fair food and fashion in Bonn
    Where: Bonn, Germany
    By: City of Bonn
    Video
  • Good Life Goals find sustainable development actions for everyone to take
    Where: Worldwide
    By: Futerra
    Presented by Solitaire Townsend, Co-Founder, Futerra
  • From Local to Global Action
    Oli Henman, Global Coordinator, Action for Sustainable Development
  • Young Leaders for the SDGs: powered by the Office of the Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Youth
    Ezequiel Vedana Da Rosa (Brazil)
    Amelie Jezabel Mariage (Spain)
  • Video message from HE Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria
  • The Way Ahead
    Cristina Gallach
    High Commissioner for Agenda 2030, Government of Spain
  • Thank you for taking action
    Video message from Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary General

Every year on the September 25th anniversary of the SDGs, the UN SDG Action Campaign joins forces with Action for Sustainable Development, GCAP and thousands of partners to mobilize the UN, national and local governments, youth groups, civil-society organizations, the media, and institutions from every corner of the world with a global call to Act for the SDGs.

Learn about this and other thousands of actions taking place across the world on 25 September and join the movement.

The event can be watched LIVE at http://act4sdgs.org 

Or follow the SDG Action live on #Act4SDGS,

Follow us and #Act4SDGs on:

Twitter: @SDGAction Facebook: @SDGAction Instagram: @SDGAction 

 

Increase youth voices on SDGs for the Global Day of Action

To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on 25 September, we are excited to share with you some incredible actions of our partners to celebrate the Global Day to #act4SDGs across the Asia-Pacific.

Youth for Sustainable Impact (YSI) is a youth-led organization working to capture voices, opinions, priorities, and views of people to affect the development agenda and policy-making in India. Kishore G, YSI founder, has a great passion to raise awareness and promote SDGs in India. Following his participation at the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development in Bonn 2018, Kishore returned to India and established his own youth organization to promote the MY World Survey across India. YSI will visit numerous schools and talks to students about SDGs on 25 September. Using fun activities such as SDGs games, community problem-solving, career guidance and life lessons, experience sharing sessions, YSI plans to collect opinions of Indian youth through the MY World Survey as well as to provide them knowledge and skills on SDGs. More information on  YSI’s action can be found here.

Kishore talked about SDGs at a school and conducted MY World survey

The Center for Sustainable Development Studies (CSDS) is a non-profit organization, focusing on youth development, community development and international volunteer exchange in Hanoi, Vietnam. To promote awareness on SDGs, CSDS will organize a big event Autumn Festival: Act local, impact global at University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi on 23 September. There will be numerous events happening on the day to involve and empower Vietnamese youths to act for SDGs. Exhibitions of youth projects on community development, market fairs to promote sustainable lifestyles, elevator challenges to seek for local community’s problems, youth initiative awards for outstanding youths who are actively working on SDGs will be among one of the activities during the event. CSDS also work closely with UNDP Vietnam, UN Women and Vietnamese ASEAN MY World advocates to celebrate the day.

Do you have an outstanding idea to #Act4Sdgs #By 2030? Are you interested to join the global movement? Then register your action here

 

Action for SDGs: Gender Equality to unleash the full potential of youth

The power of feminist theory and action is what young people need to create understanding across differences and learn how to lead healthy lives and make social change.

Zimbabwe United Nations Association (ZUNA) embarked on the “Different Gender Same Agenda” project. Located in a patriarchal society, gender equality issues are important.

That is why ZUNA firstly engaged in giving an introduction to the project to school patrons and to more than 70 students at the beginning of the school year. Then the book “We should all be Feminists” was given to patrons and students.

The orientation and assessment workshop went further, involving two more schools and creating a wider understanding amongst students and increasing the scope of the project.

Two students from Glenview High School present their research findings.
Credit: Kudakwashe Chinjekure

“Gender Equality is about empowering our young girls to explore their worlds without fear of breaking barriers to reach their full potential” Munesu Mushonga

The aim of the awareness campaign is to create a gender-aware generation that takes into consideration the concept of gender inclusiveness in leadership, community participation, policy and decision making. High school students have a tendency to flock to courses that bridge what they learn in the classroom to the outside world. Educators would make a difference. A social transformation will take a village of teachers, scholars, and activists and there is need to reach out to these groups.

A teacher facilitating a workshop on gender equality with high school students

Teachers and educators need to be capacitated, they need support with age appropriate and relevant content that speaks to their communities.
They need to do more global research on issues of gender and sexuality and bring that knowledge back to their schools.
Organizations and schools need to engage in partnerships on how to bring more gender research into the curriculum design.

The “Different Gender Same Agenda” has assisted in changing mindsets and attitudes of young people in Zimbabwe.

Feeling inspired to take action?
JOIN the Global Day of Action “We the People #Act4SDGs on Sept 25

On 25th September 2017, 2nd anniversary of the SDGs we are calling for actions across the world to tell people about the global goals and tell our leaders how we are performing. We the People #Act4SDGs.

Read stories from all over the world and be inspired …

Action for SDGs – Marketing for a Greener Mindset: Addis Sustainable Life

Addis Sustainable Life (ASL) is a social and business venture based in Ethiopia working on campus sustainability and the distribution of recycled-paper products for the local market.

It was founded in 2014 as a practice-based capacity building platform for young volunteers to provide solutions for sustainable living habits.
As part of its business venture, ASL designs and distributes handmade, biodegradable products from waste paper and traditional raw materials like “Kacha” and “Enset” fibers.

ASL further supports small-scale local enterprises to market and distribute its handmade eco-friendly paper products for private companies in Ethiopia.

ASL Eco-Friendly Recycled Paper Products

The most important change ASL brought within the University community was the “change towards a greener mindset”. The idea of campus sustainability was quite new and ASL pioneered the initiative for young people to engage in simple resource efficiency and recycling habits. Practically, ASL’s major beneficiaries were young student volunteers, green entrepreneurs and low-income enterprises working on the handmade paper production. Apart from raising awareness among students and volunteers, ASL has also been able to reach private companies and convince them to use eco-friendly products and support small scale local green enterprises to provide a better market for green goods and enhance the distribution of recycled materials.

ASL Book donation facilitation for Addis Ababa University students; on Environment, Climate Change and related publications.

ASL served as a platform that allowed young volunteers to think and design waste separation methods. They did this through a Design Challenge Competition for students to come up with cost effective waste separation bins and managed to produce recycled prototypes.  

The aim of Addis Sustainable Life is to mobilize youth for climate action within Universities and address one of the most important elements of sustainability such as resource efficiency and paper waste recycling.
It also functions as a creative platform for young green entrepreneurs to create income by marketing and distributing eco-friendly paper products while helping protect the environment. It eventually sensitized private companies to go green while using recycled paper products to promote their business.

Feeling inspired to take action?
JOIN the Global Day of Action “We the People #Act4SDGs on Sept 25

On 25th September 2017, 2nd anniversary of the SDGs we are calling for actions across the world to tell people about the global goals and tell our leaders how we are performing. We the People #Act4SDGs.

Read more stories of Action for SDGs from all over the world and be inspired …

 

Action for SDGs: Civil Society takes the lead! Peru and the Agenda 2030 Ambassadors

The 2030 Agenda Peru Ambassadors Program is promoted by The Millennials Movement, the World We Want Platform and the UN Inter-Agency Network for Youth Development – Working Group on Youth and Gender Equality.  The Program aims to facilitate the educated participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the process of dissemination, sensitization, implementation and citizen monitoring for 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals at the country level.

Youths discussing SDGs with the CSO Red de Mujeres Iberoamericanas

Through the program, the participant CSOs members join a capacity-building and evaluation process, deliver actions to sensitize their community the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, articulate their organizational goals with the Sustainable Development Goals and bring the voices and opinions of Peruvian men and women to UN and global leaders through the survey My World2030.

“The 2030 Agenda Peru Ambassadors Program, have allowed us interact with other people with similar ideals as our organization, making us feel that we are not alone, that we are accompanied by other youth who have the same desires to make of this a better world.”
– Jessica Danae Tapia Acero, Youth for Change / Líderes por el Cambio

Facilitating this way is a sustainable and inclusive process to achieve the SDGs by 2030. It is important to mention that the program raises awareness about the importance of gender equality to achieve the SDGs through program curricula and as a transversal matter. As it is hard to think about sustainable development when 50% of the population worldwide can’t give their 100% to achieve it.

Peru’s Youth Ambassadors for the Agenda 2030
Credit: Inpulsa Turismo

In 2016 the program reached 16 regions of Peru where 22 CSOs and 162 of their members became “citizen ambassadors” for the 2030 Agenda. 57 actions on the ground were delivered and 2,557 My World surveys were facilitated.

“The Ambassadors Program for the 2030 Agenda has shown us that it doesn’t matter how small the decisions we make every day are, every single decision in every single regards can actively contribute to achieve SDGs by 2030.”
– Rosario Diaz Garavito, The Millennials Movement

The 2030 Agenda Peru Ambassadors Program promotes participation of the CSOs and visualization of their effort as relevant contributions in their communities. CSOs have been contributing to the development process through their communities for quite some time, but many of them do not relate their efforts as contributions to achieving sustainable development at the national level, as some of them are not even familiar with these international instruments.

ICJ Lima

It is clear that the program contributes to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).  The program also includes gender equality approaches that need to be considered while delivering concrete actions to Peru. Peru is a country with different issues regarding gender inequality, according to the last National Gender Inequality Report 2015, the levels of inequality include both economic and political spheres.

Feeling inspired to take action?
JOIN the Global Day of Action “We the People #Act4SDGs on Sept 25

On 25th September 2017, 2nd anniversary of the SDGs we are calling for actions across the world to tell people about the global goals and tell our leaders how we are performing. We the People #Act4SDGs.

Read more stories of Action for SDGs from all over the world and be inspired …

 

Innovation and People’s Actions at the heart of the 72nd UN General Assembly

High-Level events, interactive discussions, data showcases, the latest immersive experiences, UNVR screenings and specially thousands of people and over 500 organisations around the world mobilising action to #ACT4SDGs… we are looking back on a successful UN General Assembly and first Global mobilisation to celebrate the SDGs Anniversary.

At the 72 UN General Assembly the UN SDG Action Campaign provided forums to experience cutting-edge technologies and to explore new ways to scale those innovations, to transfer skills and provide the necessary tools for individuals to be able to own and take action for the SDGs from across the globe, and to celebrate the actions and innovations that are already happening. Here are some of the highlights:

SDG Interactive Exhibition 

 

Hundreds of visitors came by the SDG Interactive Exhibition, curated by the UN SDG Action Campaign, to take part in a multitude of immersive experiences and participatory activations that support the UN system in communicating and advocating for the advancement of the SDGs. The experiences provided a voice to people around the world and a peek into how the SDGs manifest in their daily lives, giving delegates at the 72nd General Assembly the chance to understand their realities at this important annual political forum.

Visitors experienced how today’s available and low cost technology can address tomorrows  constraints on industry and life through today’s available, through the SIMTAINER. Light, a first-of-its-kind live-synced VR experience created by Mae allowed visitors to reveal the underlying fabric of our shared humanity and invite a posture of humility in the face of the radical collaboration required by all of us to accomplish the SDGs.

Moving from empathy to action, visitors could also discover and share citizen perceptions on the SDGs with real time SDG data visualizations, sharing their views on SDG progress through the MY World 2030 survey, and the social media commitment capsules at the #Act4SDGs corner.


High-Level Event on Innovation and Technology: SDG Innovation

On Monday 18 September, the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (UN Global Pulse) and the SDG Action Campaign convened governments, CEOs of major technology leading companies and innovators at the High-Level Event on SDG Innovation during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly.

This unique event exposed governments to breakthrough ideas and innovations available, and leading tech innovators to the concrete problematics and challenges of countries in advancing the Agenda 2030. H.E. Miroslav Lajčák, President of the 72nd General Assembly opened the event. Among the group of participants were: H.E. Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia and H.E. Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of United Arab Emirates, Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn, Marc Benioff, Founder and CEO of Salesforce, Ashish Thakkar, Founder of Mara Group and Chair of the UN Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council.

“To achieve the SDGs, governments, NGOs and the private sector must all work together to unleash a massive wave of entrepreneurship that generates the breakthrough companies at a record pace. That is how we will create greener power, distribute more food and create hundreds thousands of new jobs for the growing middleclass”
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn 

This unique event exposed governments to breakthrough ideas and innovations available, and leading tech innovators to the concrete problematics and challenges of countries in advancing the Agenda 2030. Read the whole post and watch the videos

SDG Action Campaign at the SDG Media Zone

The SDG Media Zone aims to engage people all over the world in the important conversations happening during this high-level week of the UN General Assembly and to strengthen the commitment of the international community in support of the 2030 Agenda.

The Campaign programmed and participated in 2 sessions:

Data tells the story on the SDGs

Mitchell Toomey, Director SDG Action Campaign with Robert​ ​Kirkpatrick,​ ​Director, UN​ ​Global​ ​Pulse Moderated by​ ​Emily​ ​Courey​ ​Pryor, Executive​ ​Director​ ​Data2X 

The Future We Want in Virtual Reality

Moderated by Kristin Gutekunst,Executive Producer, UN SDG Action Campaign, featuring Monique Marian, BU Architect, Grimshaw Architects
and Marina Gorbis, Executive Director, Institute for the Future.

The UN SDG Action Campaign also participated in the Media for Social Impact Summit, our Global Director, Mitchell Toomey gave a keynote address regarding Action for the SDGs, and Kristin Gutekunst, Executive Producer of the UNVR project, moderated the exciting panel: Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Virtually Reporting the Realities of the SDGs. Find out more

Data Playground: Celebrating data, innovation and technology for the SDGs

The UN SDG Action Campaign, UN Global Pulse, and Microsoft organised the fourth annual Data Playground, an interactive event showcasing data and technological innovations for the SDGs.  Innovators across the UN and private and public sector joined for an evening to discuss and explore opportunities for accelerating sustainable development solutions. Read full post

The Global People’s Summit

The UN SDG Action Campaign participated in the first ever Global People’s Summit for Sustainable Development to facilitate a series of activations and calls to action. 84 MILLION people were reached in 160 COUNTRIES

 

Launch of the ASEAN MY World 2030 survey

The ASEAN MY World survey was officially launched by the UNDP Administrator and all Foreign Ministers from the ASEAN region.

“Multi-stakeholder participation and inclusion are recognized as key drivers of success; however there is still a need to increase public awareness and ownership. The ASEAN MY World survey will increase public awareness and capture priorities and perceptions of progress on the agendas.”
Achim Steiner, Administrator of the UNDP 

The ASEAN MY World survey will increase public awareness and capture priorities and perceptions of progress on the agendas, interpret peoples’ aspirations towards the ASEAN Community Vision and the SDGs at the national and regional level, and subsequently help shape policy recommendations and plans of action for ASEAN Member States to achieve the agenda/vision in a timely manner.

Read the complete speech  or go to the ASEAN My World 2030 Survey: asean.myworld2030.org

Global Day of Action for SDGs  – We the People #Act4SDGs

On 25 September, 2017 – the second anniversary of the ratification of the SDGs. The UN SDG Action Campaign, together with the World We Want 2030, local chapters of the Global Campaign Against Poverty (GCAP), and Action for Sustainable Development, joined forces to invite people around the world to take action and send a strong signal to leaders about the importance of the SDGs.

The result? Thousands of volunteers and citizens around the world, celebrities, journalists and thought leaders joined to inspire people to collectively achieve the SDGs: 

500 organisations
1000 actions
116 countries and 380 cities
11,000 tweets
84 million people reached globally  

Explore the actions and join us: www.Act4SDGs.org

 

Action for SDGs: High School students engage to raise awareness about the SDGs at Cottonwood Festival in Flintridge, California

High School students from Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy joined together to have a session about the Sustainable Development Goals and set up a hub at the Cottonwood Festival in Flintridge, in which they aimed to raise awareness about the Global Goals.

They managed to spread the knowledge through the session and eventually filled in several MyWorld2030 surveys.

Most of the participants were new to the global goals. They found out SDGs are of crucial importance in their everyday lives, to the point that when filling the survey they could not even choose 6 out of 17 because they all mattered to them.

The hub was focusing on SDG13 Climate Action, which was the most related to the course the students are currently undertaking. They created pins of the SDGs by recycling plastic bottles caps, showing their engagement in climate action.

Students from the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy marking the recycled bottle caps with SDG numbers from 1-17.

“I just learned about these goals today!”
One of the participants after visiting the student-made hub at the Festival.

There has been a lot of curiosity around the SDGs, people felt the need to know more, asked for further information and eventually engaged towards their achievement and evaluation through the MYWorld2030 survey.

A visitor filling out the “My World 2030” survey after listening to the student’s introduction about the SDGs at the festival.

 

FEELING INSPIRED TO TAKE ACTION?
JOIN THE GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION “WE THE PEOPLE #ACT4SDGS ON SEPT 25

On 25th September 2017, 2nd anniversary of the SDGs we are calling for actions across the world to tell people about the global goals and tell our leaders how we are performing. We the People #Act4SDGs.

 

Read more stories of Action for SDGs from all over the world and be inspired …

Action for SDGs: Building Bridges for Women Entrepreneurs

Young women are disadvantaged compared to their male counterparts when it comes to access to funding, community trust, government tenders, and mentorship. The actions taken by the Building Bridges Foundation and its partner’s efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa can effectively address the challenges that hinder young female entrepreneurs in setting up and running their businesses.

The Building Bridges Foundation in partnership with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN SDG Action Campaign has developed a project that focuses on the economic empowerment of young female entrepreneurs in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This program has helped to equip youth entrepreneurs with the skills and tools that enabling them to grow their businesses, and empower more women and girls in their communities.

“When your dream scares you, that’s when you know you are on the right track.” Sometimes I’d look at myself and think, will I really be able to be a 15-year- old designer?
This is crazy! And then I realize that what I’m doing is really unique and it’s special.
I just have to keep on doing it.”
Tawile – Malawi.

What has been the impact so far?

  • More than 1000 young entrepreneurs participated in the project
  • 80 Humans of MY World stories were created that continue to inspire many young people around the world to do chase their dreams.
  • 27 female youth entrepreneurs have been incubated and assisted with the skills and tools that are needed for their business to prosper and employ more young people.
  • A book and research report were presented to heads of state, ministers, NGO leaders and other stakeholders during the Nairobi High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.
  • Local hubs and a network of youth entrepreneurs that cover 45 cities in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya) have been created.

The policy recommendations set out by the research component of the project aim to enhance new regulations and programs driven by multi-stakeholder cooperation in order to boost the economic activities of young women.

Feeling inspired to take action?
JOIN the Global Day of Action “We the People #Act4SDGs on Sept 25

On 25th September 2017, 2nd anniversary of the SDGs we are calling for actions across the world to tell people about the global goals and tell our leaders how we are performing. We the People #Act4SDGs.

Read more stories of Action for SDGs from all over the world and be inspired …