Voluntary Organized Society - Diagnosis, Local Goals and Policy

#SDGAction42832

Description

Intro

In April 2018 Ribeirão Institute 2030 was created in the city of Ribeirão Preto, especially to highlight the UN agenda. The initiative, organized by entrepreneurs, liberal professionals and researchers, represents an organized and voluntary civil society action that everyone must act in favor to the SDG’s fulfillment . The lack of commitment of the city with the theme has led this group to organize and since the creation of the Institute several actions are being promoted. The Institute will remain in business until the year 2030.

Objective of the practice

The main objective of Instituto Ribeirão 2030 is to press the political power and society to promote the necessary changes so that the 17 Sustainable Development Gols are fulfilled until the year 2030. To be successful in its agenda, the Institute is, itself, being committed to perform several actions. One of the most important, from which the other projects will be structured, is the diagnosis of the municipality reality in relation to the SDG’s. The institute hired professionals and is doing the survey of indicators to better understand the local reality. Information obtained is being organized into reports (text and video) and disseminated to the media. In addition, all the data is presented in its own website, as can be observed at www.ribeirao2030.com.br. The communication of the research results aims to clarify the topic, considering that little was said of the SDG’s in Ribeirão Preto, until the creation of the institute. 
Between January and February of this year, the Institute diagnosed the SDG’s 1, 2, 3 and 4. A few people knew that although the city is the 23rd in the ranking of the generation of the Gross Domestic Product, 35,500 people live on less than US $ 1,2 per day. The diagnosis also shows that 46 thousand people live in substandard housing. On SDG 2, the city's main problem is not hunger, but malnutrition. However, reality can not be measured correctly since there is no comprehensive monitoring by the city hall. 
From the acquired knowledge the team is proposing a set of own goals for the municipality, always in consonance with Agenda 2030. 
As a proposal for implementation, the institute elected to act in favor of Quality Education. The group is promoting a Pact for Education, involving all stakeholders in this area. To begin with, a broad diagnosis was made of the reality of schools and various projects, from the recognition of the best initiatives with awards, to the activities of teacher training already being carried out. 
The diagnosis of the 17 Objectives will be completed in June of this year, when it will be exhibited in its entirety in a Book Fair that takes place in the city for eight days and which this year, by articulation of the Ribeirão 2030 Institute, will highlight, as theme of the event, the SDG’s. 
Considering the formation of the group, the Institute is offering entrepreneurs a consultant to guide companies in relation to sustainability goals. The material provided follows the UN proposals. 
The greatest difficulty of the group in the diagnosis of the municipality is the lack of access to the data. The city does not facilitate, the portal of public transparency does not provide indicators. Precisely for this reason, the area of activity of the Institute is confirmed it’s essential importance for the fulfillment of the Agenda.

Partners

The initiative to create the institute was motivated by the lack of action of the political power. No practice to comply with the SDG’s had been announced by the city hall. To organize the actions and guarantee the participation of the stakeholders, the Institute is holding a series of meetings with the employees of the companies that support the initiative. During these events the group listens to demands, expectations and recognizes common problems. In order to organize the ideas and follow up on the projects, subgroups were created: Education, Transparency, Sustainability and Culture.

Implementation of the Project/Activity

Considering the creation of the Institute as the main project, it was necessary initially to gather the interested people, to organize a common agenda, to resolve legal issues, since the institute is an established organization with headquarters, status and goals, create ways to cover the costs of the initiative (the Institute is run by volunteers who make monthly donations) and operationalize the actions. To keep the group cohesive, monthly meetings are held with all members (seventy people until February 2019). However, participants in the subgroups meet more often each month, depending on the demands presented. All the diagnoses are shared and each one of the group collaborates with their reflections of the problems and participates in the debate for the submission of proposals. In the next phase, to be started in July, when the surveys of the 17 SDG’s realities will be concluded, the Institute will present the specific goals for Ribeirão Preto. The proposal is to make these goals an important agenda in the 2020 election period when a new mayor will be elected to lead the city. The desire of the group is that, because of the political force of the collective that it exercises, the candidates commit themselves to advance in Agenda 2030. When the group concludes the diagnosis, after presenting the goals for each of the SDG’s, the next step will be the creation of a schedule of activities designed to be fulfilled over the next 10 years.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

For some researchers, the SDG’s, in its planetary agenda format, remains distant from small localities such as municipalities away from large centers. Therefore, proposing the debate of the UN Agenda from the cities is a way of making it a problem of all individuals and not only of national political leaders. It is in this logic that the project of the Ribeirão 2030 Institute gains evidence. When it was created, at the time of making the first disclosures, although Ribeirão Preto was a large city with 700,000 inhabitants, it was common for some very well-formed intellectuals to ask: What are the SDG’s?
Putting the theme on the agenda is the first measure of project success. Making the local diagnosis and letting everyone know how big the problem is is the second successful initiative. Making short reports about each of the SDG’s with simple language and clear data, divulging the reality of the municipality, pointing to data that even the city did not know, was the third high point of the project of the Institute up to the present moment. Other results can not be pointed out at this stage of the initiative, but by the end of the year the whole course will have been fulfilled and, from there, attention will be focused on changing practices. Without the involvement of all this will never be possible. In education area the collective signature
of a pact scheduled to begin in June of this year will show, in practice, the potential of organized society when united by a common cause.

Enabling factors and constraints

What supports the project as a successful practice in favor of fulfillment the SDG’s is the knowledge that a public policy arises from the demand presented by the people. If the theme is relaxed, managers do not prioritize it in their political agenda. In this way, to communicate the urgency of SDG’s, to raise the problem, in a country where indicators are scarce and neglected, is undoubtedly an important initiative to be evaluated, analyzed and perhaps replicated in a society of equal profile. The political organization of the planet is centered in cities. It is in the cities that people live their lives, so it is from them that the demands of the world need to be debated and experienced. This is the logic of Instituto Ribeirão 2030. Without raising awareness of the issues addressed in all SDG’s, there will be no progress. Although many of the decisions are centered on the political person of great leaderships, they will not move without pressure. Disseminating SDG’s to the general public is putting the issue on the agenda of decision makers.

Sustainability and replicability

As the initiative narrated here encompasses all SDG’s and is supported by the pillars of diagnosis, reality data communication and political pressure, it contains actions favorable to environmental, social and economic progress. The city is the scene of the initiative, the involvement of communities is one of the strategies and the collection of political forces for the creation of proposals for fulfillment with the Agenda is the Institute's strength. The idea is to make the Agenda not a UN Agenda, as is commonly communicated, but an Agenda that is common to every citizen of the planet. From any place where the human being is, the issues of poverty, hunger, health, education, gender, environmental sustainability, equality, are themes related to the human being. To not allow that the protagonism of the Agenda stays only with the politicians is the desire of the Institute Ribeirão 2030. For the group if it had not been so in the years before the turn of the year 2000, the Millennium Goals would have been fulfilled.

Conclusions

We are all responsible. The Chilean Humberto Maturana has already said that culture is a network of conversation, to change a culture, change the network of conversation. This is what the Instituto Ribeirão 2030 is proposing. The world is the set of all places. You must see each one of them. Each individual needs to know their role on the planet. This will not be possible without everyone taking responsibility. From civil society to politicians, from politicians to society. Communicating the need for change is the first initiative to change.

Other sources of information

All the material narrated can be observed in the Institute website www.ribeirao2030.com.br. Especially in the link of each of the SGD’s.

SDGS & Targets

Goal 15

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 7

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 9

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 4

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 8

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 6

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 2

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 10

Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 5

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 16

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

Goal 1

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 12

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 3

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 13

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Goal 14

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Deliverables & Timeline

N/A

Resources mobilized

Resources

In-kind contribution

voluntary action of the participants

Partnership Progress

No progress reports have been submitted. Please sign in and click here to submit one.

False

Name	Description
14.1	By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution
14.2	By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
14.3	Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels
14.4	By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics
14.5	By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information
14.6	By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation
14.7	By 2030, increase the economic benefits to Small Island developing States and least developed countries from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism
17.14	Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development
14.a	Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particular small island developing States and least developed countries
14.b	Provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets
14.c	Enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158 of "The future we want"

Feedback

Action Network

This initiative does not yet fulfil the SMART criteria.

Timeline

16 April 2018 (start date)

01 January 2030 (date of completion)

Entity

2030 Ribeirão Institute

SDGs

15 7 9 4 8 6 2 10 11 5 16 17 1 12 3 13 14

Region

Latin America and the Caribbean

Geographical coverage

The Project´s headquarters is in Ribeirão Preto, city located in the interior of the state of São Paulo. With 700 thousand inhabitant the city is polo of the metropolitan region formed by other 34 cities.

Photos

Voluntary Organized Society - Diagnosis, Local Goals and Policy

Website/More information

N/A

Countries

Brazil

Contact Information

Adriana Silva, General Director

diretoria@ribeirao2030.com.br