UN SDG Action Campaign

Back to basics: Going Beyond Online for SDG Advocacy

Written by Marikris de Guzman and Jose Mateo dela Cruz, MY World 2030 Advocates in the Philippines

In a world where selfies and the need to post on social media all the events that are happening real-time are the norms, how do we make people understand that what is important is not actually seen online? The advocacy for sustainable development boils down to people.

One former Philippine president said to her successor then – It’s the economy, student! But what is the economy if it does not serve the people. We believe that the same is true for the global goals – the centrality of the goals boils down to the development of the people’s lives and their quality of living.

Secondary students from a public high school in Pangasinan participating in the MY World Survey by answering the printed forms

A crucial component of the programme is the ASEAN MY World 2030 survey, which was launched by the 10 Ministers of Foreign Affairs of ASEAN and UNDP Administrator at the opening of the UN General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in September 2017. Through an online form, anyone can answer the survey and make their voice heard by the policymakers. An alternative to answering the online form is through a printed survey form. In addition to promoting the survey, advocates also conduct activities in their locality to promote awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals and feature advocates to demonstrate their local actions.

To bring forth localization, we need to focus not just on theories but on the lived experiences of people. This is where MYWorld becomes relevant – the survey and the Humans of MYWorld features are attempting to get a glimpse of the realities of people and try to measure if the aspirations of the new development agenda have borne significant changes for their lives or not.

As part of our strategy to increase awareness of SDGs in the grassroots level, we have conducted the survey in provincial areas using printed forms to give more space for participation to people who are not easily connected to the internet in the north and south of the Philippines. We did this through tapping local networks from our social capital and mobilizing them to support the conduct of the survey.

For us advocates, we wanted to go beyond promoting the global goals online. We hope to help in generating discussions and developing solutions within our communities. We believe that the people need to be enlightened regarding the SDGs than to merely contemplate about these and appreciate the Global Goals through social media sharing or even posting the goals that mean strongly for you. We knew that what we were doing has inherent limitations. The awareness survey is just the first step in promoting the implementation of the goals. People and institutions alike should be informed about the global goals first. With awareness, we hope that this can spark actions from institutions and communities to build collaboration and partnerships toward localizing and achieving the global goals at the grassroots level.

With this, the real power of MYWorld as a platform comes in – it is bringing back the discussion of these lofty and ideal goals to the people who demanded for sustainable development years ago. Features, campaign hypes, and communication strategies are being done to make people work for the goals but are we venerating the goals as an idea without understanding the real end game?

This year, we are privileged to be part of the ASEAN MY World 2030 Programme which aims to empower young changemakers in the ASEAN region to take upon a leadership role for both the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, led by the United Nations SDG Action Campaign, the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub and the UN Volunteers Asia-Pacific. Selected youth advocates from the region will lead and carry out a series of advocacy activities in order to raise awareness about both agendas and increase citizen engagement to inspire concrete actions on the ground.

The challenge here is how to create a society recognizing individual aspirations but collectively working for these shared goals. This means going beyond the comfort of the online space and going to the communities and people where development is greatly aspired for. The battle to make the goals a reality is still ongoing. It will not just end in an online campaign rather it will be a long march from one community to another to educate, advocate, and work together for the global goals. It is a battle for uplifting the lives of more than 7 billion people and preparing this generation and the next to create a sustainable future- a planet that each person can say: MYWorld – a world that we want!

Paragon Partnerships’ member PepsiCo carries out first MY World scientific survey in the Philippines

70% of Filipinos feel the situation on the Sustainable Development Goals of most concern to them – poverty, hunger and good health & wellbeing – has not improved in the last twelve months.

More has to be done if we want to achieve the Goals by 2030, and the Philippines is a good example of it. PepsiCo, Paragon Partnerships and the UN SDG Action Campaign conducted a representative survey among 10,000 Filipinos to look at their awareness of the SDGs and their perception on how the situation on the most important issues for them and their families has developed in the past year.

The survey revealed that awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals signed by 193 World leaders at the UN in 2015 was very low among people in the Philippines, at just 5.9% of the total numbers interviewed. And more importantly, the lower the socio economic demographic, the awareness decreased further.

Anand Kantaria of the UN SDG Action Campaign said “This latest data demonstrates that more has to be done in communicating the SDGs to the most marginalised communities, ensuring that no one is left behind. Multistakeholder partnerships such as this one with PepsiCo and Paragon help us gather critical timely data on progress and feed people’s’ perceptions into decision making at all levels”.

Pamela Forbus, PepsiCo SVP Global Insights & Analytics, said “We are proud to partner with Paragon Partnerships and the UN SDG Action Campaign in the effort to collect data and insight to improve people’s lives. This important work is aligned with PepsiCo’s strategic vision, Performance with Purpose, which began over a decade ago and is rooted in the fundamental belief that business success is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world we share.”

The survey also indicated that SDG 1 – No Poverty, SDG2 – Zero Hunger and and SDG3 – Good Health & Well Being are the primary concerns to Filipinos. When asked about how the situation has evolved for these specific Goals, the vast majority (68.2%) felt that the goals of most concerns to them had not changed in the past 12 months, while just over a quarter (28%) thought they had improved over the same period, and only a small percentage 3.8% of the interviewed Filipinos felt the Goals that they were most concerned about had got worse, with the lowest socio economic classes being the least optimistic about any positive changes.

The survey was conducted as part of PepsiCo’s Demand Science project in the Philippines. PepsiCo included three MY World 2030 questions in partnership with the United Nations SDG Action Campaign for this Paragon Partnerships project.

Dilek Ozler of Paragon said “PepsiCo is an active contributing member of the Paragon Partnerships, committed to using data and insight to improve people’s lives. As Paragon, we are proud to be providing a platform where market researchers around the world and countries/ governments come together to measure the impact of the actions towards sustainable development. Without measurement, it would not be possible to see real progress and keep ourselves responsible. Our hope is that more country governments take the opportunity to work with Paragon, not only to measure the progress of SDGs in their countries, but also to use market research to help feed their policies to implement SDGs. Knowledge and citizen insights are key for the implementation of SDGs.”

Dig deeper into the results of the survey here.

To explore other results and how people think about progress on the SDGs click here.

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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International Youth Day in the Philippines

By the Balayan Social Action Office of the University of St. La Salle and the Sagay City Government.

International Youth Day 2014 brought together more then 150 youth leaders and activists at the University of St. La Salle for discussions on the post-2015 development agenda, the My World Survey and gender equality.

The day started with a message of inspiration by Jilt van Schayik, the Dutch Youth Delegate to the United Nations. “Leave your footprint behind, be part of the solution and act as leader of today, not for the future only” were among the messages he shared.

The forum then continued with a discussion on the post-2015 development agenda in which youth leaders from different backgrounds shared their ideas, solutions and best practices for the world of tomorrow. The main priorities and areas of concern were: education, healthcare and job opportunities. This is in line with the outcome of the MY World Survey in the Philippines were those priorities rank the top three.

Take away from International Youth Day in the Philippines: young Filipino’s want to shape their own future, and with them 1.8 billion youngsters around the world.

Facebook: UN Youth Delegates
Data visualisations: Worldwewant2015.org/trends

The Boy Scouts of the Philippines participate in the Global Week of Action

By Daryl Alfred “apol” Y. Tadique, Youth Coordinator of MY World 2015 and World We Want campaigns in the Philippines

Scouts from various parts of the Philippines have once again participated on the My World Global Survey of United Nations (UN) during the 6th National Scout Venture Camp (NSVC) of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) held at Lingayen, Pangasinan, May 5- 10, 2014.

Not minding the hot summer sun, Scouts participating on the 6th NSVC visited and participated in the MY World Global Voting Day and on the My World 2015 Global Week of Action. The MY World Youth volunteers put up a booth inside the Global Development Village, one of the main modules of the said camp, with known government and non-government organizations. Continue reading “The Boy Scouts of the Philippines participate in the Global Week of Action”

The World We Want for Girls, from MDGs to post-2015

12 March 2014 – NEW YORK

The United Nations Millennium Campaign and World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) co-hosted “The World We Want for Girls, from #MDGs to #post2015 agenda” – a side event during The Commission on the Status of Women, #CSW58. The event was moderated by Amy Graham from WAGGGs. It was live tweeted (twitter.com/@myworld2015 and twitter.com/waggs_delegates), and the webcast can be seen here: .

The event began with a presentation on interesting findings regarding girls and young women from the MY World Survey by María Faré Garcia, Project Manager of MY World. The survey, already answered by 1.5 million people in 194 countries, is available on website, by SMS and by paper and pen ballot with the help of over 700 partners. Respondants are asked to choose six out of 16 priorities which would help them and their families live in a better world. Globally, the gender divide in voting is equal except in SMS voting, which is 70% male. Almost 30% of MY world respondents are girls and young women. “Equality between men and women” ranks eighth with females aged 16-30, and 13th with males of same age. This data is available at data.myworld2015.org.

Emmeline Versoza, Executive Director of the Philippine Commission on Women, spoke of the amazing progress that the Phillipines has made on MDGs by prioritizing women in their development agenda. She emphasized the need for a standalone goal on the empowerment of women and girls in the post-2015 agenda.

“All over the world, 800 women a day still die from complications in childbirth” said Nanette Braun, Advocacy and Communications Specialist from UN Women. “MDG progress for women and girls has been much too slow,” she continued, revealing the new post-2015 Beijing initiative to be launched in the coming months which will focus on accelerating progress. She advocated for more focus on violence against women, access to education and empowerment for leadership skills in girls, and for women in leadership.

The most touching moment of the event occurred when Beatrice Omweri, a Girl Guide in Kenya, told about her every day reality. She delcared that “I am here today to say no to violence and to see a world where equality is a reality.” She spoke about how climate change affects her life as a young African woman, especially in fetching water for her family. “Is it a crime to be born a woman?” she wondered aloud through tears. Girl guiding has given her hope, and helped her own empowerment and those of the girls around her.

Moved by the speakers before him, Gerardo Porteny from Young Men 4 Gender Equality began, “being surrounded by so many woman leaders inspires me to fight for gender equality.” He spoke about how his organization and the various campaigns related to it promote gender equality and the fact that true masculinity is championing the women around you: “Equality leads to a better and more loving relationship.”

The event rounded out with a general call to promote equality between men and women, the promotion of a standalone goal on gender, and praise of WAGGGS in their efforts in promoting MY World and serving as advocates and leaders for women and girls everywhere.

UN Inter-agency collaboration drives successful MY World roll out in the Philippines

The United Nations in the Philippines marked a difference. From left to right: Ms. Eden Lumilan, UNCO Coordination Analyst; Mr. Christopher Rollo, UN-HABITAT Philippines Country Programme Manager, Ms. Ugochi Daniels, UNFPA Country Representative; Mr. Aristeo Portugal, FAO Philippines Assistant Representative (Programme); Mr. Dragoslav Djuraskovic, WFP Head of Logistics; Ms. Teresita Bagasao, UNAIDS Country Coordinator, Mr. Lawrence Jeff Johnson, ILO Country Director; Mr. Marco Boasso, IOM Philippines Chief of Mission; Mr. William Wairoa-Harrison, UNDSS Security Adviser; Dr. Sigrun Roesel, WHO Representative; Mr. Daniel Toole, UNICEF East Asia Regional Director; Ms. Luiza Carvalho, UN Resident Coordinator; Mr. Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF Philippines Country Representative; and Mr. David Carden, Head of UN-OCHA.

My World in the Philippines is going full steam ahead following a successful partnership launch and media briefing last month. From less than a thousand votes in March, the Philippines now ranks 3^rd, with more than 18,000 votes.

Key to this success is the UN Country Team’s inter-agency collaboration, supported by a UN Communication Group that drives respective agencies into partnership expansion at all levels, from government, to private sector, to citizen groups. Continue reading “UN Inter-agency collaboration drives successful MY World roll out in the Philippines”