The world as we know it is actively going through distress.
This is evidenced by searing wildfires in Greece and Canada, swells of floods in Afghanistan and Bhutan, and flash snowfall in South Africa’s Gauteng province, among many other occurrences.
However, while there is much to shift one’s view toward the end of pessimism, there continue to be moments of acknowledging people and entities working toward preventing some the general mayhem where they can. What’s more pleasant is that there is a dedicated event to celebrate their exemplary work and commitment hosted by the United Nations SDG Action Campaign.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established in 2015 through consensus of the General Assembly with the aim of breaking down the massive tasks that face communities of the world through understanding their interconnectedness. The coming together of states in declaration of the fact that poverty eradication (Goal 1) is as important to under-resourced countries as their economically dominant counterparts if harnessing the benefits of strong industries, smart innovation and low-impact infrastructure (Goal 9) are to work for anyone, saw a shift in socio-economic advocacy.
Climate justice
However, many states’ performances with the preceding 8 Millennium Development Goals established in honour of the United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2000 left much to be desired. As such, the SDGs, with their 169 targets, have come to be a latch onto which many a movement and initiative has held onto to promote mindful progress. With the rise in climate justice consciousness, centring the SDGs has made for smart business at state and industrial levels.
The entity tasked with shining a light on the value and profit of keeping these goals at the heart of conduct grew to be the SDG Action Campaign. Amidst the many advocacy, awareness and education initiatives under the remit of their work stands the centre-piece affair that shines a light on the many grassroots implementers from across the globe. These changemakers are first nominated by their peers before undergoing a rigorous evaluation process overseen by a panel of judges.
Following the judges’ discernment, finalists are invited to attend what is often cheekily called the “Oscars of the SDGs” at a ceremony befitting of the moniker. The 2023 SDG Action Awards took place in Rome, Italy, on 24 July during the UN Food Systems Summit+2 Stocktaking Moment, hosted by the Government of Italy and the United Nations. While the SDGs are a collection of 17 goals, the competition for recognition is only divided into four categories – Mobilize, Inspire, Connect, and Changemaker – with an additional Honourable Mention, thus making them more about the impact than the nominees’ fields of work.
Extraordinary individuals
Lauding the importance of the awards, Global Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign, Marina Ponti, stated: “They offer us an opportunity to honour and recognise the extraordinary individuals who are inspiring change and driving meaningful action for the SDGs.” The 2023 ceremony saw World Cleanup Day take home the Mobilise accolade, while Green Obsession and Signpost took the Inspire and Connect awards respectively, and Nery Santaella earning the Changemaker trophy.
World Cleanup Day, which started with a cleanup in Estonia with 50, 000 people in 2008, has since grown to expand their mission to tackle solid waste head-on. They have since grown to coordinating global one-day cleanups that bring together millions of individuals from over 190 countries. Reported to cause “air pollution, water and soil contamination” by the United Nations Environment Programme, poor waste management remains one of the non-discriminatory scourges against human, wildlife and planetary wellbeing.
Notwithstanding, the global solid waste management market size is “projected to reach USD 366.52 billion by 2027”, according to Fortune Business Insights, signalling that while some may do it out of principle, this is not always the case. On 17 September 2022, they managed to mobilise 15 million volunteers worldwide, resulting in an astonishing feat of a single day removal of approximately 60,000 tons of waste from nature.
Envisioning city centres thriving on rooftop gardens, community gardens and urban agriculture, and connecting parks and forests is how Green Obsession caught the judges’ attention. The Italian initiative has set out to curb the pattern of inner city deforestation; especially in view of the effects it has on the built environment, climate and people’s lives. Beyond the veneer of glamour that some cities like Paris and Milan have, their brutal architecture makes them ill-equipped to manage trapped heat – as has been the case for the French capital in recent years. The organisation’s urban forestry strategy continues to see it implementing and motivating changes to the landscape of development across the world.
Shift in use of technology
Rising levels of unrest have also seen a significant shift in the use of technology to mitigate those who find themselves displaced. Tapping into the power of community-based communication, Signpost progammes aim to “embed a community-led, responsive information service at the heart of every humanitarian context around the world,” furthermore “shifting the power of information and decision-making into the hands of the communities impacted by crises”. Piloted by the International Rescue Committee in 2015 during the surge of migration toward European shores resulting in unprecedented numbers of refugees, the tailored content approach has grown to show true impact by providing end-users what they need to know as per their self-iterated needs evolve.
In the same thread of humanising access to care by migrants and refugees, the winner of the Changemaker award is someone for whom the work was born out of personal experience. Nery Santaella was a model in Venezuela when conditions forced her to seek refuge in neighbouring Colombia. Rather than viewing her story as the only one that needed to be told, Santaella established the “Voices of Venezuela” platform that sought to bring to light some of the over 7 million displaced Venezuelan people as reported by The Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V). The initiative employs a migrant-to-migrant model that has proven to be effective in providing culturally conscious responses such as their helpline service that has impacted over 640,000 individuals.
Acknowledging the usefulness of Artificial Intelligence and chatbots, Santaella has far surpassed the productivity rates of many in the humanitarian response sector, thus effecting States, NGOs, international stakeholders and embassies to seek her assistance, and leading to more efficient and equitable outcomes for migrants.
Measurable strides
The Honourable Mention for this year went to a couple whose celebrity status pales in comparison to their humanitarian work. Sabrina and Idris Elba have taken their appointments as Goodwill Ambassadors for the International Fund for Agricultural Development to heart and shown measurable strides. IFAD is a specialised agency and international financial institution of the UN working to combat poverty and hunger in the rural areas of developing countries. Through their direct action to reach environmentally and economically susceptible farming communities, promoting investment in enabling food security, and encouraging the recognition of the risks presented by inaction on climate change and environmental conservation, their voices have been resonant since their appointments in 2020.
For these winners to be the ones who emerged victorious from a pool of over 5,000 applications originating from 190 countries shows that the esteemed panel of 28 judges truly believes in their words and works. While the endeavour of making attaining the SDGs may sit in a portion of people’s minds they may seldom summon, the unforgiving impact of negligence remains inescapable. Regardless of geography, nationality, wealth status, race or age, sustainability of life is an encoded concern that awards ceremonies like these only seek to have extended to the life of the one planet we inhabit.
