Three members of United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) began working together this spring to help support the success of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by collaborating across cultures to broaden perspectives on how to achieve the Global Goals.? Under the direction of ?Global Education Motivators (GEM), students from Effat University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA, United States, worked in support of the UNAI directive to provide a mechanism for such institutions to commit themselves to the fundamental precepts driving the United Nations mandate, in particular the realization of the universally accepted Sustainable Development Goals.
Using technology to overcome the 7,000 mile distance students and educators from the two schools met in real time on 7 December 2015 via an interactive videoconference facilitated by GEM from the United Nations Headquarters.? It was during this conversation that the idea of collaboration between the two schools to support the SDGs was born.?
On 22 March 2016 the schools participated in a videoconference from the United Nations with Ramu Damodaran, Chief of UNAI, and Pragati Pascale, former Chief of the Development Section of the Department of Public Information, talking about the MDGs and the SDGs.? The program opened with a moment of silence related to the terrorist attack that had just occurred in Brussels, Belgium.
Ramu Damodaran talked about the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals and their connection with the UN Millennium Development Goals. He explained how the SDG's were put together by critiquing the Millennium Development Goals and making the SDGs broad enough so different solutions could be created to support universal human rights, human development and environmental sustainability. ?The new goals were tied to the five P's of people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnerships. This was connected by Wayne Jacoby of GEM to the 4 Cs of Global Education: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. During the program the conversation also touched on the danger posed by violent extremism and the role growing youth unemployment plays in this issue.? The stressed the importance of making the SDGs widely known and activating the activators as key to the success of the SDG's.
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(Ramu Damodaran during a previous visit to Chestnut Hill College)
The conversation continued on 14 April 2016 with the second part of the series concentrating on the SDGs and moving students from awareness to action.? From the United Nations Friedrich Solta of UN DESA and Patience Stephens of UN Women discussed the SDGs and interacted with students from both schools.
The videoconference opened with a powerful ten minute video of Jeffrey Sachs, current Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network at Columbia University, speaking in 2012 about his vision for the still distant SDGs that had yet to be created.? He predicted an expanded support network that would be created and he addressed the importance of youth as a major voice in determining what the world will be like in the future. He talked about the need to engage young people to create a better understanding across cultures in order to create a more trusting world in the future. The focus of the videoconference was to move students from understanding to action now that they had a better grasp of the SDGs in order to create a better world for future generations.?
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(Jeffrey Sachs in Introducing the Sustainable Development Goals)
Students from both schools are now collaborating via Twitter and Google Docs on problems and solutions to help achieve the SDGs. Students from both schools will prepare short videos where they talk about the UN in Your World videoconference experience and what they learned about the Sustainable Development Goals.?They are also preparing for the next step, the Global Solutions Lab.
The Global Solutions Lab, created jointly by Big Picture Small World and GEM, is an eight day conference held each June at Chestnut Hill College.? It challenges participants to design problem solving strategies with Medard Gabel, a protégé' of Buckminster Fuller.? Participants work in small teams across cultures to find solutions to various problems associated with the SDGs.?
(Participants of the Global Solutions Lab at United Nations Headquarters)
Students from more than 10 countries will participate in the conference from 19 to 27 June and work across cultures on these solutions.? Students will get to present their small group solutions to UN staff, representatives from the private sector, members of civil society and philanthropic organizations at the United Nations on 27 June.
The use of communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking is paramount in this project and participants are expected to make great strides in broadening perspectives on important global issues.? By looking at the world from different cultural perspectives and making learning relevant, peace, development and environmental sustainability can become a reality for future generations.
Submitted by:
Cynthia Brain
Undergraduate Student/Chestnut Hill College
GEM Youth Representative to the UN