UN SDG Action Campaign

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

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

All aboard the Peace Boat! Guests champion the SDGs during the "Floating Festival for Sustainability"!

On Thursday, October 20, over 600 people attended a grand exhibit aboard the Peace Boat. This “Floating Festival for Sustainability” marked the Peace Boat’s 92nd Global Voyage for Peace since the nonprofit was established in 1983, and the first time the ship has docked in New York in five years. It also marked the inauguration of the Global Goals logo on the boat.

The SDG Action Campaign has a long history of working with the Peace Boat, having launched a partnership in 2009 to promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Peace Boat previously hosted the Millennium Campaign logo, gave courses on the MDGs to passengers, and participated in the Stand Up Campaign among other activities. The Peace Boat has also been an early adopter of the MY World 2030 survey, helping to translate the ballot into Japanese, and collecting ballots both from passengers and people they meet during their journey. They presented the results of their first efforts in their recent report about the ship’s visit to Latin America – showing the enormous efforts and impact the boat is able to make on supporting the implementation of the SDGs.

The event occurred aboard the Peace Boat, providing guests with an intimate glimpse of life at sea. When guests first arrived, they were greeted with a tour of Peace Boat’s impressive ship. The foyer of the ship allowed guests to engage with the mission of the Peace Boat and with an exhibition of projects the peace boat is aligned with. Peace Boat, an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations, campaigns for the Sustainable Development Goals as it tours the globe each year. The UN SDG Action Campaign was present to drum up excitement about the SDGs and give participants the ability to engage with immersive content. Participants could take the MY World survey to voice their opinion on the importance and progress of the SDGs, take selfies highlighting their favorite SDGs and watch the virtual reality films of stories from around the world.

The World We Want team was also present, inviting guests to learn about their activities and to join the Policy Strategy Group. The World We Want is looking to continue doing WWW exhibitions around the world to promote the SDGs and civil society’s participation in UN activities. Other exhibits included the presentation of the Eco Ship, an entirely sustainable ship fueled by renewable energy sources that will retrieve the mission of the Peace Boat and promote climate action world-wide when in launches in 2020.

The main event of the evening began with live music and dance, followed by a series of speakers including H.E. Jan Eliasson (United Nations Deputy Secretary-General), H.E. Ahmed Sareer (Ambassador of the Maldives and Chairman of the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS)), Jeff Brez (Chief NGO Relations Advocacy and Special Events, Outreach Division, United Nations Department of Public Information), Yoshioka Tatsuya (Peace Boat Director) and Cora Weiss of the (President, Hague Appeal for Peace). The presentations were followed by an eco fashion show highlighting sustainable designs, and the SDGs chosen to be of highest import to each of the designers.

The presenters made appealing calls to action for all guests to get involved with the SDGs and in promoting peace. The Mr. Eliasson stressed the need to join forces and approach the SDGs in a collaborative manner, encouraging everyone to not be phased by the large task at hand, but rather to focus on small actions that add up: “nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something”. He stressed the need to empower and create space for youth and women as major actors in the fight for peace.

Mr. Tatsuya gave an energetic presentation about the new ship the Peace Boat is developing, which will soon be the most sustainable ship to ever set sail. It will include an on-board university for peace & sustainability, sport activities, and volunteer exchanges in local communities visited.

The evening also included a passionate appeal from a survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bombing as part of a special partnership with the United Nations First Committee on Disarmament and International Security (UNODA). Five victims of both Nagasaki and Hiroshima, known as Hibakusha, are traveling with the Peace Boat to campaign against nuclear weapons, hoping to see a world without them in their lifetimes.

For more information on the Peace Boat, please visit: http://www.peaceboat-us.org/

68th President of General Assembly’s High-Level Stock-taking Event – a participatory approach

“Our work must remain open and transparent so that we hear the voices of all”

-Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary-General

September 11, 2014, NEW YORK

Blog by Caya Johnson, Global Youth Advocate

The President of the General Assembly’s High-Level Stock-Taking event on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, held on the 11th and 12th of September in New York, emphasized the need for a participatory, inclusive, and open approach to formulating the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The proceedings of the Stock-Taking event, which marked the end of President of the General Assembly John Ashe’s term, will be incorporated into the Secretary General’s Synthesis Report at the end of November. The Stock-Taking event also served as a way to pass the post-2015 agenda into the hands of the incoming President of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa.

Over the course of the event, panelists, civil society guests, and country representatives stressed the importance of openness, transparency, and citizen involvement in the formulation and adoption of the SDGs. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted that “the ongoing UN system consultations, including MY World, have sought the voices of…millions and millions of people around the world.”

Helen Clark praised the “unprecedented consultation around the world and online” which has allowed people to have their say in the post-2015 development agenda – she noted that “the global MY World Survey enabled many people to be involved.”

Continue reading “68th President of General Assembly’s High-Level Stock-taking Event – a participatory approach”

People’s Voices on Accountability and the Post-2015 Agenda

In his speech during the Interactive Dialogue: “Elements for a Monitoring and Accountability Framework for the Post-2015 Development Agenda”, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon commended member states for their commitment to determining the goals and means of financing the next sustainable development agenda. However, he cautioned them on the need for results based goals which are accessible to policy makers and the public. To do so, he noted the United Nations must agree on a robust, universal accountability framework which includes the voice of the people:

…over the past few years, we have heard the voices of our global conversation and more than 2 million people through the My World survey. It is worth noting that there are more than a million votes for honest and responsive government. We must take the vision of the world’s people into account. We must recognize the strength of each of our many partners.

He echoed his commitment to integrating the UN’s analytical and operational work, and of integrating the UN with existing regional and national accountability frameworks.

This event coincided with MY World votes for “An honest and responsive government” reaching over 1 million. In the qualitative data collected on The World We Want 2015 it is easy to see linkages between the people’s voices and accountability and governance issues.

Download the People’s Voices on Accountability Report
Read the “Secretary-General’s remarks at the Interactive Dialogue of the President of the General Assembly on Elements for an Accountability Framework for the Post-2015 Development Agenda”
Vote in the MY World Survey
Explore the MY World Data Set
Explore The World We Want to see data visualizations on the post-2015 process, follow events and outcomes from discussions thus far, and to add your voice to the debate.

UN Secretary-General listens to 1 million voices from MY World

People around the world call for better education, healthcare, honest and responsive government and jobs.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented today a new report “A Million Voices: The World We Want”. The report summarizes the findings from public consultations and surveys, that engaged more than 1.3 million people in all 193 UN Member States since August 2012 in an effort to identify priorities for the post-2015 development agenda that will succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“For the last year, the UN has been encouraging an unprecedented ‘global conversation’ on the world that people want,” said Ban Ki-moon. “The report that we launch today captures the voices of over one million people from all regions and backgrounds. We sought the voices of those that are usually unheard – particularly those people that are poor, excluded or marginalized.”

Almost one million people participated on this consultations through the MY World options survey, using digital channels, SMS and extensive offline interactions through a network of over 700 civil society partners.

Most MY World votes came from India, Nigeria, Cameroon, Thailand, Philippines, Rwanda, USA, UK, Brazil and Indonesia. Half of all participants were under 30 years old.

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MY World, Your Data

Recently in New York, data gurus and global development experts gathered together for a special MY World + UN Global Pulse event to explore possible ways of utilizing the MY World data set. To date, more than 645,000 people from 194 countries have cast their vote and provided incredibly useful demographic information – age, gender, education level and country. Such a rich data source presents a creative challenge to data artists and analysts to build an accessible and interactive means of exploring the information.

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Summary of the latest MY World results for the High-Level Panel meeting in New York

By May 10th 2013, the MY World survey had mobilized nearly 530,000 participants in 194 countries to vote for their most important priorities. Over half of these votes have been collected offline, using paper and pen. Just over one third have come through the MY World website, and around eight per cent have come through mobile phone surveys.
The data that the survey is generating yields important information not only on global priorities, but also how these differ by characteristics: by gender, age, education level, and location. This paper provides information on the current findings at a global and sub-global level, and some suggestions for the implications for policy post-2015.

Read the full report (PDF)

Priorities for the global development agenda shaped by unprecedented public outreach effort

PRESS RELEASE

New York, 21 March 2013 – The United Nations presented today the first findings from an unprecedented global conversation through which people from all over the world have been invited to help Member States shape the future development agenda that will build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after their target date at the end of 2015.

The snapshot report of initial findings entitled “The Global Conversation Begins” was delivered to more than 100 representatives of Member States who will negotiate the future development agenda that is likely to build on the MDGs and sustainable development agenda from Rio+20.

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