Dear Readers,
I am excited to announce that I will be a part of the UN Conference taking place 21 – 23 March in Germany. The Global Festival of Action takes place every year in Bonn and is all about sustainable development. Bringing together activists from all corners of the world, the conference offers a platform to exchange ideas and to get updated on global trends. This year´s festival theme covers civil society engagement, multi-layered stakeholder involvement and the potential of technology in order to make the Sustainable Development Goals happen.
A highlight of the conference will be the presentation of the UN SDG Action Awards for outstanding action in the field of sustainability. The finalists are young global leaders whose initiatives take approaches in art, film, music, data analysis, virtual reality storytelling or workshops to communicate the SDGs in their communities.
The initiative “Nigeria in maps” was created to make data more visible to a broader public. Therefore, Olusegun Osifuye collected data on current issues in Nigeria and created maps on specific topics such as gender equality and security. The “Beat Rockers Speech Therapy” initiative teaches beatboxing to children and is thus a fun way to conduct speech therapy. It was created by James Kim from New York.
The various initiatives have in common that they adress special needs of their communities. First finding a problem, they acted in generating solutions using methods from different fields. Therefore it is necessary to think that change is possible and that it is worth to put an effort into it. The UN Global Action Awards in the frame of the Global Festival of Action remind all of us that a global community stands behind everyone who is willing to change the status quo.
Follow up:
Twitter #SDGglobalFest
#SpreadYourGoals2030
Live Stream available http://webtv.un.org/
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