National Level Workshops 25th November 2019

SDG Implementation in European Countries

Workshop for CSOs and CSO Platforms  

On 25 November 2019 from 10:00 to 17:00, the SDG Watch Europe especially invites its members from national platforms, civil society coalitions or loose NGO networks for a set of capacity-building workshops and exchanges. The workshops will take place at: Meeting Room EARTH, European Environmental Bureau, 14-16 Rue des Deux Eglises, Brussels.

To register for the workshops please enter your details here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13rlBz9RxQGEwoQhV5Zm4971LGjl8rRo0lwR7Ik9gmEY/edit

Workshop 1 on Advocacy: Bringing the SDGs to the Parliament

As an intergovernmental agenda, the main responsibility of implementing the SDGs lies with the governments. In many cases, parliaments are insufficiently involved in the SDG processes and can thus not realize their checks-and-balances role. Furthermore, keeping in mind the speedy work process in parliaments and short-term political challenges, the SDGs are often too broad for the day-to-day life of parliamentarians. 

 In this session we want to discuss:

• What are good and bad experiences of strategies to include the SDGs in parliamentarian processes? How to start and keep them onboard?
• What kind of advocacy and training structures are useful to get them more engaged? What is meaningful participation, critical monitoring, legitimate opposition?
• How to deal with conservative parliaments?

Workshop 2 on Communication: Rethinking SDG Awareness Raising  

Why make the SDGs a top-down PR process if you can tap into the potential of telling stories close to people’s hearts? In this workshop we want to discuss examples of how to raise awareness on the SDGs in a way that motivates and leads to political engagement, without patronizing people. What are good strategies to reach people and overcome the gap between knowing and doing?

In this session we want to discuss:

–       What are innovative ways of communicating the SDGs?

–       What are ways to link the SDG to topics that are relevant for the public and create political pressure?

–       What is the role of CSOs in communicating the SDGs – keeping in mind the agenda’s flaws and unambitious parts as well as its watchdog role concerning political processes?

Workshop 3 on Engagement: Connecting with Social Movements

Power to the people – an idea that in the last couple of years has once again become visible. All over Europe and the world, social movements are growing and people are voicing their political concerns, calling for actions and using various forms of protest to disrupt traditional lines of thinking. 

In this session we want to discuss:

–      What kind of role do social movements play in the implementation of sustainability? Is sustainability reflected in their strategies and in what way?

–       Where do their successes lie, where are their limits?

–       And how can CSOs engage, interact and partner with social movements in a meaningful way?

Open Discussion in World Café