MANILA, Philippines - People of different walks of life came together on Saturday, September 26, for Rappler's Innovation + Social Good Summit (SGS), an event that focused on the UN Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the continuation of the Millennium Development Goals.
Rappler partnered with different organizations during the summit in order to provide opportunities for participants to gain knowledge of the SDGs and implement them in their different fields.
Each organization provided exhibits that address different advocacies in line with the SDGs. The formation of these goals gave the organizations an avenue to promote and engage people to participate in contributing to achieving the goals’ targets. (READ: United Nations PH chief: Make global goals election issues in 2016)
Specific advocacies
The exhibits tackled their own set of Global Goals. World Vision, for example, focused on goals 1 to 6, and 17, through the continuation of children-focused programs like their Child Sponsorship Program, and their promotion of World Food Day on October 17.
Some addressed environmental issues and sustainability. Bike Scouts deals with disaster risk reduction by promoting accountability to one another especially in times of need. eBayanihan takes crowdsourced information and lays it over hazard maps to serve as a “platform for the disaster cycle.”
For the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the goal of the exhibit was to introduce participants to the goals and motivate them to ask questions like, “What do we want? What do we want for the country? What do we want for the planet?” For the exhibitors, the expectation was not to create people who were experts on the Global Goals, but to get people to know and care about one goal that mattered most to them.
Elections and good governance necessary for success
Not all exhibitors have a direct contribution to fulfilling the SDGs, but it focuses on a crucial factor in the fulfillment of these goals – government.
COMELEC and LENTE, organizations whose advocacies were good governance and social empowerment, were present during the event.
"The sustainable goals always go back to the government," said Carlo Africa, National Secretary of LENTE. With the presidential elections set for May 2016, citizens have a role and a responsibility to exercise their right to vote. In that way, Africa added, they can assure that the fulfillment of the global goals is on the agenda of those elected in office.
UNDP Philippines’ Country Office Head on Advocacies Louie Halumbayan said that as simple as spreading out the message and implementing the SDGs in our respective households, would ripple out to bigger places through bigger ways.
"Through unity and collective effort, we can fulfill the Global Goals," Halumbayan added. - Rappler.com