Shaping Fair cities: international campaign start

On September 25, 2019 Shaping fair cities international campaign starts with the hashtag #inourhands.

Shaping Fair Cities
Integrating 2030 Agenda within local policies in times of great migration and refugee flows

International campaign start: 25th September 2019

“Local governments should not be seen as mere implementers of the agenda. Local governments are policy makers, catalysts of change and the level of government best-placed to link the global goals with local communities.”
(“The Sustainable Development Goals: What Local Governments Need to Know”, United Cities and Local Governments Organization, 2015)

On 25 September 2015, the Member States of the United Nations agreed on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. On 24 and 25 September 2019, the first-ever SDG Summit will take place in New York at UN headquarters. In the same week (20-27 September) the Global Climate Strike is happening worldwide.

We choose the 25thof September 2019 to start Shaping fair cities international campaign with the hashtag #inourhands. This claim represents our project philosophy: only through participation and inclusion - leaving no one behind - a real change is possible in order to achieve the Global Goals. It is in our hands: ‘our’ means together, nobody excluded: citizens and institutions together to achieve the 2030 Agenda Goals in our cities. ‘Hands’ means helping concretely the change, through localised and urgent actions. Shaping fair cities recognises, emphasises and enhances the role that cities and sub-national governments need to play in this process.

The campaign will have an informational, educational and advocacy character and its main goal is to raise awareness on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which in many countries is still generally poorly known by citizens, as it emerged from the surveys conducted by project partners in nine of the cities at the center of the project (Modena, Forlì, Reggio Emilia, Vejle, Falkoeping, Split, Shkoder, Poznan, Pemba). Different targets are involved in different project activities: from the multilateral consultations to the trainings, from the local campaigns and to the multimedia outputs, all activities will be realized with active participation and direct involvement of regional institutions and municipalities, local authorities, civil servants, grassroot organisations, and citizens.

17 is the total number of UN SDGs, like 17 are the partners of the project, from ten EU countries and two non EU (see the full list of partners at the end of this document). Thanks to this international and multi-stakeholder partnership, the action will promote the crucial role of local governments in the implementation of the new set of goals, paving the road to local 2030 Agenda plans. It will mobilize local authorities in implementing the SDGs by addressing the migration challenges and the related local policies with a strong gender approach (SDG5), promoting a peaceful and inclusive societies (SDG16), making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (SDG11) and acting to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG13).

The beginning of the international campaign has been introduced by a 'countdown' on the project facebook page (@shapingfaircitiesEU), during which each of the 17 project partners presented one of the 17 SDGs linking it to their local contexts. The international campaign will promote the actions, contents and activities by the different partners during their local campaigns, which will take place until the end of 2020.

Some examples:

All partners will contribute to the realization of a set of multimedia platforms and outputs: a policy learning platform, coordinated by Romanian partner BRCT Iasi, an itinerant web documentary, produced by Italian partner Emilia-Romagna Region, 6 animated videosby Italian partner WeWorld-GVC, a website about SDG and migration by the University of Bologna.

Watch the Web documentary Teaser > on Youtube

One of the Romanian partners, BRCT Iasi (Regional Office for Cross Border Cooperation Iasi), has announced a Summer School on Agenda 2030 and sustainable development, between 26-30 September. The Summer School is organised in cooperation with Iasi University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine– University of Applied Life Sciences and Environment. It will include seminars and practical activities connected with all SDGs. All activities - their content and logistic aspects - will be coordinated by the local university. More information: www.brctiasi.ro

Polish partner ROPS (Regional Centre of Social Policy in Poznan) has already started its local campaign on 1st of May 2019. The activities conducted so far include: a capacity building training, policy learning trainings, a multilateral consultation during The Week of Non-Governmental Organization. A 2030 Agenda Summer School for students will take place from 21st of September to 5th of October 2019 and will include workshops with experts, visits, the so called ‘Clean Up the World’ action and a final evaluation outdoor meeting, where the best projects developed during the school will be announced (go to the facebook event). In the meantime, there will be national specific training taking place on 27-28 of September in Collegium Da Vinci School in Poznan. The event will include public institutions, NGOs and CSOs. There will be workshops, presentations, a film competition and meetings with experts (go to the facebook event). On the 25th October in Poznan there will be Workshop for Agenda 2030 presentation in the form of World's Café and on 27-29th of November 2019 a coordination meeting of all project partners in Poznan. For more information: rops.poznan.pl/nasze-projekty/shaping-fair-cities.

Velje Kommune has announced a 17 months campaign during which, each 17th of the month, there will be a special content issue. Different kinds of meetings dedicated to the various SDGs have been conducted starting in May 2019: last one for example was a seminar called "Nature and green change - Denmark for the goals". A special serie of videos have been produced with the title ‘The Family Robot explains SDGs to children’ (watch it here: youtu.be/V0Mzl2Dpqtg).

Emilia-Romagna Region has published a call for proposals (expired on 20 September 2019) directed to local authorities to carry out communication and awareness campaigns which, in an innovative and effective way, increase awareness and mobilize citizens in favor of implementation of the 2030 Agenda in our cities. The goal is to involve as many local authorities of the Region (Municipalities, Metropolitan Cities and Unions of Municipalities), civil society organizations and citizens as possible in the process of localization of sustainable development objectives. In the final phase of the project Emilia-Romagna Region will organize the „Fair Cities Days”, a three-day European event in Bologna which will take place in 2020 during the regional campaign involving representatives, local authorities, company directors, experts and professors in workshops, conferences and debates with the aim of creating a synergy between politics and companies and launching a strategic debate on the implementation of development policies at city level.

The official coordinator of the campaign are: ROPS - Regional Centre of Social Policy from Poland and WeWorld-GVC from Italy, with the supervision and coordination of Emilia-Romagna Region, lead partner of the project.