2030 Agenda Citizens Ambassadors Program
Description
The 2030 Agenda Citizens Ambassadors Program in a civil society initiative that aims to contribute with the capacity building process of youth lead or youth focus organizations regarding the 2030 agenda approaches and opens an space to deliver concrete actions in the territories and link them with global process to implement and monitor the 2030 Agenda. The Program is delivered in 8 countries in the Latin American region and currently on it´s third edition has engaged 100+ Youth CSOs and reached 15000+ citizens and support the local partnership process for sustainability.
- Support the Youth lead CSOs capacity building process regarding the 2030 agenda approaches in the LATAM region.- SDG 4<br />
- Promote the 2030 agenda monitoring process through the My world 2030 survey. - SDG 16<br />
- Promote the implementation of the world’s largest lessons schools sessions in local schools in the participant countries. - SDG 4<br />
- Showcase the local and youth contributions in the regional and global scheme. - SDG 17<br />
- Promote local, regional and global alliances and mobilize resources to achieve SDGs by 2030. - SDG 17
b) Project Everyone - The World Largest Lesson: We have a partnership with this organization to use the sustainable development curricula for students (6 - 15 years old) in the School 2030 interventions. http://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org
c) United Nations SDG Action Campaign: As partners we have the permissions to engage citizens in the 2030 Agenda global monitoring process through the My World 2030 survey http://sdgactioncampaign.org
d) ECLAC, support the Capacity Building process of the youth lead organizations.
Launching call and selection process: In this process we include the program launching and the program´s call. Once the deadline for applications is achieved we select youth lead Civil Society organizations that meet the program requirements (being a Youth lead organization per at least 2 years, have at least 3 team members, located in the LATAM region).
Capacity building process: Each year the program considers 5 evaluated online training sessions regarding the 2030 agenda approaches and facilitates useful tools for citizens engagement to the participant organizations. Each session has a relevant thematic and are recorded and posted as an open source. The trainings topics are:
- Program introduction,
- Open democracies and the role of civil society in the local development process,
- Inclusion, youth and gender approaches to reduce the gap in local sustainable development,
- Education, nutrition and well been as a tools for local development,
- Local sustainable development approaches and citizens engagement mechanism to monitor the 2030 Agenda implementation.
Activities implementation: During the program´s implementation the participant Youth lead organizations deliver the program activities in their communities. Is important to mention that these activities are linked to global process promoting a "GLOCAL" approach for sustainable development. The participant organizations articulated with their local society stakeholders (universities, schools, local authorities and private sector) developing a social tissue that will support the participant organizations future actions for the development of their communities. The program considers 4 activities:
- School 2030: Is a 4 sessions intervention in local schools that aim to educate kids regarding sustainable development approaches, this session will be developed by the youth lead civil society organizations.
- Community 2030: Uses public spaces to sensitize local people and collect citizen’s commitments for local sustainable development.
- Impacting from my sphere of action: Helps the participant organizations to articulate their organizational goals to the sustainable development goals, and identifying the contributions they make with their organization general activities to the sustainable development of their communities.
- Conferences and workshops: Participant organizations deliver informative workshops in their communities in partnerships with universities and local governments to educate their peers and promote their engagement in the local development process of their community as active actors.
- UN My World 2030 Survey, is facilitated during the implementation of the 4 actions. This survey is promoted by the United Nations SDG Action Campaign as the most open mechanism to engage citizens worldwide in the citizens lead monitoring process of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Systematization: This process allows organizations to systematize the information they collected during the program, filling reports we provide through on line forms. This allows us to document the work developed, analyze the results and report to the allies.
Certification: During this stage we certify organizations that finished the program but also we issue another certification to the organizations members who also finished the capacity building process.
Building capacity for youth engagement
The Program has built the capacity of 600+ members of CSOs and has supported the full participation of 100 CSOs in 8 countries of the LATAM region Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, República Dominicana and Venezuela). Overall, these participants have reached over 15, 000 citizens, increasing their awareness of the 2030 Agenda and their willingness to engage in actions in support of it. Additionally, more than 100 local allies—including local authorities, other CSOs, and academic and private sector actors—participated in the implementation of the activities by facilitating spaces or providing institutional support and funding.
Organizational learning, capacity and profile
Following the program, some of the participating CSOs included approaches consistent with the 2030 Agenda in their organizational plans or launched their own initiatives in support of those. Through the program, participating CSOs accessed trainings with experts, received tools to bring about actions in their communities, contributed to international publications, showcased the work they do in their communities, joined a network of CSOs committed to sustainable development, reinforced relationships within their teams, and have been considered for future opportunities.
Increased collaboration and greater access to decision makers
In leading their community initiatives, many Ambassadors partnered with other (non-participating) local actors and organizations—with the exception of partisan organizations or political activities. This allowed organizations to engage their local governments and mobilize resources in support of the 2030 Agenda. In some cases, partnerships with other local organizations gave Ambassadors access to spaces where decision-makers were active and to opportunities to gain their support.
Influence and engagement of decision makers
The capacity-building program increased the ability of Ambassadors to engage in political advocacy and to influence decision-making processes in their communities from the bottom up. Once the actions were delivered and local authorities sensitized, a number of Ambassadors were able to put their concerns and relevant data—such as the results of the My World 2030 survey—to decision makers and to follow up on policy development and public processes.
Further, local authorities showed great interest during the actions in knowing more about the 2030 Agenda and in engaging in this process. Their engagement was important, since governments are responsible to lead the public process to implement the Agenda in their constituencies. Sensitizing and engaging them in actions towards the achievement of the SDGs alongside CSOs contributed to their accountability to deliver on sustainable development.
As a youth-led organization in a developing country, funding is an ongoing issue for the Millennials Movement. To overcome this challenge, the organization has found strategic partnerships as a means to avoid limiting its actions because of a lack of funding. The use of free and low-cost existing ICT tools, for example, webinar platforms and graphic design and data analysis software, was also part of the strategy to overcome the challenge of supporting participating CSOs in more distant regions.
Data management
As a program that generates a high volume of data and connects to global efforts to generate and monitor progress on SDG indicators, data management is critical and challenging. Once again, the use of ICTs such as Google Drive and the PSPP app was crucial, as was the participation of a volunteer team specialized in data systematization who managed the program data and reporting on outcomes.
CSO retention
While 80 CSOs were selected to participate in the program’s second phase, only 38 successfully completed the process. Nonetheless, members from 56 participating CSOs completed the online trainings and were awarded an online certificate of participation. This learning reinforces the importance of having online training sessions that are sufficiently creative to keep the training dynamic and engaging throughout the capacity-building process.
Balancing ownership of the process with support
To respond to citizens’ and communities’ expressed desire to learn and access information during the implementation of local activities, it proved important for Ambassadors to adapt the information and knowledge to their local context and to the particular groups with which they were engaging. To effectively engage local citizens and communities through their activities, CSOs were left with some freedom to plan and deliver the program in a way they judged locally-appropriate, rather than being tied to following rigid instructions. The role of TMM was, therefore, one of support, rather than direction.
Importance of recognizing achievement
Finally, the activities recognizing outstanding participation have contributed further to empowering participant CSOs.
Youth is a transformative force for development , they have shown they can do more than advocacy they can deliver concrete contributions to achieve the 2030 agenda and mobilize resources at the local, national and regional level to engage their community in the path for sustainability. Investing in these kind of efforts increase the chances to ensure the success of the 2030 Agenda through a sustainable implementation and monitoring process promoting civic values. Is important to recognize that other actors supports are quite important to validate youth engagement and actions and to generate alliances with local actors such as universities, schools, governments and other.
2030 Peru Ambassadors Program Social Media platform:
https://www.facebook.com/Embajadores.Peru.Agenda2030
2030 Peru Ambassadors Program Full Report (2016):
https://sdgactioncampaign.org/2017/03/16/programa-de-embajadores-peru-a… https://sdgactioncampaign.org/category/field-story-in-latin-america/per…
https://sdgactioncampaign.org/2017/09/15/action-for-sdgs-civil-society-…
https://participedia.net/en/cases/engaging-local-csos-achieve-sustainab…
https://sdgactionawards.org/initiative/1192
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDDqsxBJ0BU&feature=youtu.be
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- Latin America and the Caribbean
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Contact Information
Rosario del Pilar Diaz Garavito, Executive director