On Thursday evening, 21st of October, over 68 engaged community activists came together online to celebrate SAOLTA’s annual Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Advocate Showcase Event.
The 2021 SDG Advocates are a group of motivated and concerned Active Citizens from all over Ireland, who took the “call to action” in March this year. During the following 8 months, they took part in a journey of discovery and design. Through a deepened awareness and understanding of the SDGs, each participant set about the creation and implementation of an informed Action Project, within the Adult and Community Education sector. The SDG Showcase 2021 highlighted the incredible dedication and creativity of this year’s Advocates.
The guest speaker on the night was Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, who is the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in New York since August 2017 and now leads the Security Council team at the Mission for the 2021-2022 term. During her address, Ambassador Byrne Nason spoke passionately about the efforts needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the importance of international cooperation in these efforts.
We know what the future holds if we don’t act
Ambassador Byrne Nason
Filmmaker Alan Markey, who is currently developing a short documentary of the project showed a snippet of his recordings which included interviews with several Advocates about their Action Projects and motivations. The rest of the evening showcased the Advocate’s work through panel discussions and breakout room sessions between audience members and Advocates. Tom Lindsay from Accelerating Change Together (ACT) presented the findings of The SDG Tag Tool cohort impact report on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The evening was closed by Michael Doorly, representative of the Saolta consortium and chairperson of Development Perspectives.
We need to be people of hope
Michael Doorly
A short documentary of the programme will be made available at https://www.developmentperspectives.ie/dptv
The SDG Advocate Training is part of a larger programme called “Saolta”; meaning “worldly-wise. Find out more about this programme at https://www.developmentperspectives.ie/saolta