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United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development

#AlleanzaAgisce, ASviS mobilises in response to the covid-19 crisis

ASviS – Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (
Civil society organization
)
#SDGAction33376
    Description
    Intro

    At the height of the Covid-19 crisis, the Alliance launched #AlleanzaAgisce, a solidarity initiative designed to gather, disseminate and grant immediate access to the hundreds of projects carried out by members of the ASviS network throughout Italy in order to help not only fragile social categories, but also workers, women, enterprises, students, culture professionals deeply affected by pandemic. The activities implemented ranged from free webinars, digital laboratories for kids, training courses for teachers, remote psychological support, public information campaigns, conversion of museum exhibitions into virtual tours, fundraising initiatives and so on.

    Implementation of the Project/Activity

    ASviS invited its members to report every solidarity initiative they realized in response to the Covid-19 crisis. In order to collect all the initiatives, ASviS planned and created an online platform highlighting how diverse and widespread the solidarity actions had been. A particularly important role was played by the University Network for Sustainable Development which carried out hundreds of initiatives. As well as adapting and ensuring the continuity of the services offered to students, universities provided support for their local communities assisting businesses and health providers with research free of charge, conducting studies focusing on Covid- 19 and the certification of products, remote psychological support for students, video recipes and online gymnastics session. The involvement of businesses and trade associations primarily consisted in the reconversion of certain chains of production and donations to the national health service, providing personal protection equipment and ventilators, financing free accommodation for health workers involved in responding to the emergency, supplying food vouchers. Third sector organisations provided: medical support for refugees, children and the homeless; the distribution of meals and food, meetings to provide information on remote working and disability, information campaigns on anti-Covid legislation, language assistance in healthcare facilities, remote orientation and legal support. Remote psychological support was provided for women, alongside public information campaigns designed to make people aware of the unequal demands placed on them, and reflect on the connection between the health of the planet and human health.

    Results/Outputs/Impacts

    The initiative had gathered 214 examples of good practices, with details provided in a dedicated section of ASviS’s website. During the lockdown, this section contained news, interviews and in-depth coverage of the concrete commitment shown by the Alliance members and associates. The project received the “Solidarity award” from the UN’s SDG Action Campaign, a United Nations initiative recognizing the 50 best solidarity initiatives carried out around the world in response to the Covid-19 emergency.

    Enabling factors and constraints

    The Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development brings together over 290 member organizations among civil society. This wide and structured network helped the practice to succeed. In addition, a key role was played by the University Network for Sustainable Development, the first experience of coordination and sharing between all Italian universities committed to the topic of environmental sustainability and social responsibility. This network counts about 80 universities that carried out hundreds of initiatives throughout Italy.

    Sustainability and replicability

    This initiative can be easily replicated as ASviS’s network is constantly growing and third sector and civil society organizations are more than usual active both at national as sub-national level during the pandemic.

    COVID-19 Impact

    AlleanzaAgisce collected many good practices and most of them resulted so useful and innovative to be implemented also in the post-Covid period such as online lessons, smart working, profit-no profit partnership, strong universities-businesses collaboration on research and so on. Another example is represented by the reconversion of chains of production such as the case of the large-scale 3D printing of valves to transform snorkel masks into ventilators.

    N/A
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    No progress reports have been submitted. Please sign in and click here to submit one.
    False
    This initiative does not yet fulfil the SMART criteria.
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    Timeline
    23 March 2020 (start date)
    22 July 2020 (date of completion)
    Entity
    ASviS – Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development
    Ongoing
    No
    SDGs
    1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 13 17
    Other beneficiaries

    Participants in the initiative included trade associations, businesses, confederations, universities, research centres, third sector organisations, unions, museums, foundations, who support all the categories worst hit by the crisis like disadvantaged families, women, disabled people, workers, businesses, students. The University Network for Sustainable Development, the universities’ Italian network committed to SDGs, represented a key stakeholder.

    More information
    Countries
    Italy
    Italy
    Contact Information

    Elita, ASviS editorial assistant