The Instagram Competition in Ljungby, Sweden
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Large signs with the 17 global goals were set up in the Swedish municipality of Ljungby. Residents were invited to take a picture in front of the signs and post it on Instagram with the hashtag #globalamålenljungby. The competition was advertised on social media and in the local and regional press. An award ceremony took place every week for a month: the prizes consisted of fair trade products or cinema and bath entrances. The fair trade rewards were put together in collaboration with Fairtrade City Ljungby. The SDGs lightened up also the traditional candlelit St. Lucy’s Procession on December 12. Politicians, executives and civil servants from the Ljungby municipality gathered in a forest, each person impersonating a Goal based on their work specialization. Each representative read a rhyme about his goal. The procession proceeded to visit several public places around the cities, which had been decorated with fact cards about the Goals. Source: report from the Association of Swedish Municipalities (SKL)
Local governments also participate in various platforms and initiatives in collaboration with civil society organizations, the private sector, professional organizations, and many other stakeholders. The Belgian SDG Charter was signed, among many other stakeholders and governmental bodies, also by 73 municipalities. The Netherlands SDG Charter has 110 signatories, including large private companies, civil society organizations and the association of local governments, promoting cross-sector partnerships. Finland’s Civil Society Commitment: The Finland We Want 2050 is a multi-stakeholder platform for the 2030 Agenda supported by the Finnish government. Its partners include over 400 institutions between CSOs, local governments, companies and business organizations, trade unions, academia and several high-level personalities. In Italy, the national association of municipalities (ANCI) has participated in and supported a bottom-up process of evaluation and monitoring of the SDGs: this process was led by the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), a consortium of over 160 partners, including civil society organizations, foundations, academia, trade unions, associations of gender, ethnic and religious minorities, governmental agencies, and international cooperation bodies. In several countries, LRGs have been proactive drivers of the localization process while their national governments are still defining their overall strategy (e.g., Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Basque Country in Spain) or – perhaps more importantly – even when their national government is actually withdrawing from international agreements and commitments, as it is the case with the 323 mayors in the United States that have already pledged to uphold the Paris Agreement and the country’s greenhouse gas commitments, under the mantle of the Mayors’ National Climate Action Agenda.14
14 See for more information: https://medium.com/@ClimateMayors/climate-mayors-commit-to-adopt-honor-and-uphold-paris-climate-agreement-goalsba566e260097.
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