On May 22nd, the Together | Ensemble 2020 Conference hosted a national workshop on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) leadership for campus action. The workshop was led by Beth Eden of SDSN Youth Canada, Tyler Warnock, Katherine Liu, Tyson Bilton and Adibba Adel of the Sustainable Development Goals Alliance (SDGA) at the University of Calgary and Riadh Mestiri, Catherine Lebel, Elisabeth Chartrand and Pierre-Antoine Descôteaux of Alliance étudiante en développement durable de l’Université Laval.
The workshop was held using an L.W.R approach: Learning, Working and Reporting. We have designed a video series that highlights key sections of the workshop that you can watch to learn how to lead SDG action on your campus.
Main Session
PART 1: Diagnostics and Context Scanning
“Diagnostics” is the analysis of the campus’s current situation (context scan), outlining the potential resources and limits to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at their institution. Participants were able to evaluate their campus context through a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis break-out session.
PART 2: Mobilization and Network Structures
“Mobilization” is the process of mobilizing knowledge, connections, and resources to create effective action plans to implement the SDGs on campus. It enabled the analysis of progress so far and opportunities in the future to implement the SDGs. Participants were encouraged to find their university on the World University Impact Rankings on the SDG to understand their institution's progress on the SDGs.
PART 3: Ideation and Next Steps
“Ideation” is the process of forming and designing new ideas. It requires the use of tools to put ideas into action. Four concurrent breakout sessions were provided to participants to equip them with tools and ideas for how to progress the SDGs through four topics areas. Sessions were hosted by SDG Alliances in Canada, providing a deeper understanding and expertise from their campus experiences.
Breakout Sessions
Event Planning
Learn the step by step method to create a successful and sustainable SDG event on your campus.
Advocacy
To make advocacy effective on a campus level, one must build strong institutional partnerships, seek opportunities to advocate for an issue, have a clear and persistent message and call to action, and be able to negotiate with campus bodies to achieve their goal.
Creating Administrative Partnerships
It is important to encourage and provide avenues for students’ associations to create partnerships with their university administrations. The objective for the associations is to become a credible partner for the university to collaborate with for the strategies and policies that are undertaken to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Succession Planning
Succession planning and building human capacity helps ensure the long-term sustainability of alliances and student-led initiatives on-campus. The University of Calgary’s Sustainable Development Goals Alliance succession planning strategy provided best practices for leadership transitions, hiring, and orientation.