Society Commitments for the sustainable development (SDG 17.16 a 17.17)
Description
The "Society Commitments" is an online platform where each individual, society and public organization can publish how they will contribute to the sustainable development in the Czech Republic. The platform is run by the Ministry of the Environment, that is the main organisation responsible for realization of the sustainable development in the national context. Each commitment is assigned to one or more of the SDGs and also to one of the key areas of the Strategy "Czech Republic 2030" (the national version of the 2030 Agenda).
There are three main objectives. <br />
1) Involving the public and business will ensure long-term implementation and policy coherence of the sustainable development in the Czech Republic, that will be independent on the governmental changes or the actual political preferences. <br />
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2) Activity promotes the sustainable development to the public and shows that it is a matter of each of us, providing a platform to act. The platform can serve as an inspiration with endless possibilities of participation. <br />
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3) Activity enables better communication and cooperation of the state sector and public sector for the future matters. <br />
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The challenge we are facing is <br />
1) How to ensure that all the commitments will be fully met. <br />
2) How not to prevent that the whole activity turns into a "greenwashing" and a PR campaign of commercial subjects. <br />
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That is why we are now updating the registration system. Every registered actor will sign a unilateral memorandum stating his commitment, with the signature of the CEO of the organisation, that should bring more accountability into the process.
Methods of engagement: Social media campaign and personal address of the selected organisations and individuals through the network of the Council of the Sustainable development and its committees.
The project started in November 2018, inspired by the similar activity of the government in Finland that was launched in 2015.
At the moment we are collecting individual Society Commitments.
The commitment may last from several weeks up to one year. After the set deadline it will be evaluated. The first round of Evaluation will be done in autumn 2018, when we want to collect feedback from the participants, how the implementation went for them and whether they encountred any obstacles. The results and best practices will be presented in November 2019 on our annual conference Forum of the Sustainable Development.
The long-term result of this activity is to boost sustainable development into every day actions of people, business and public sphere.
Constraints - it is not easy to convince the individuals and companies to make them commit unilaterally to something, as it may seem as an extra work for them.
This activity is a new way how to engage the public and the business sector into the sustainable development. In the region of the Central and Eastern Europe it has not been tried before. It should impact positively the perception of sustainable development within the society and ensure a long-term stability in its implementation.
SDGS & Targets
Deliverables & Timeline
Resources mobilized
Partnership Progress
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Feedback
Action Network
Timeline
Entity
Region
- Europe
Website/More information
Countries
Contact Information
Natalia Stanova, Ministry advisory