The Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG) is the umbrella association of all 300 municipalities in Flanders (Belgium). The VVSG is an advocate, knowledge provider and network builder of and for local governments.
Local elections will take place in Belgium in 2024. The VVSG is therefore aligning its SDG program this year with the local policy cycle. Cities and municipalities will receive tools and inspiration to integrate the SDGs in, for example, their context analysis, local party programmes or citizen participation initiatives. The 2024 'Sustainable Municipality Week' campaign will also be dedicated to policy planning. During the campaign week, the VVSG will encourage participating municipalities to make local projects sustainable with concrete tools such as the SDG circle exercise, the SDG check, inspiration sheets per policy domain, and so on.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is an advisory body in the EU institutional set-up representing European civil society. We act as a vibrant forum for European civil society dialogue - hence, ensuring a broader democratic legitimacy and effectiveness of the European Union. The Sustainable Development Observatory (SDO), as a body within the EESC comprising 24 members from a wide range of civil society organisations, is dedicated to engage people in Europe and globally for a sustainable world. The SDO plays a crucial role in advancing the sustainability agenda within the EU and in its current work programme focuses on key areas of transformations to facilitate the implementation and assessment of the SDGs.
"Recognizing that sustainable development is a collective responsibility, the SDO places a strong emphasis on meaningful stakeholder engagement and participation, particularly with young people. Therefore, we are happy to be part of the European Sustainable Development Week (ESDW) initiative to make European activities towards the 2030 Agenda and beyond visible on a common platform." Maurizio Reale, President of the EESC Sustainable Development Observatory
"We only have a few years ahead of us to advance and accomplish the 2030 Agenda. This is not the time for back-tracking. It is time to accelerate action and take everyone along in this journey. In particular, we need an EU comprehensive strategy for the SDGs – covering both the internal and external dimension. We want the EU to invest in SDG credibility and lead international efforts to accelerate SDG implementation" Peter Schmidt, President of the EESC Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment
The 2024 EU Green Week is part of #WaterWIseEU, a campaign to stimulate an EU-wide conversation around water today and in the future. The campaign aims at fostering awareness and promoting positive, collaborative solutions. Organisations across Europe are invited to join the campaign now.
The Finnish Regional Sustainability Weekhighlights good examples of sustainable solutions in rural areas. It’s an event week that brings together different actors to inspire and make visible hands-on measures for a sustainable society. The program for the week is created by companies, associations, municipalities, schools, and other actors taking part.
During The Sustainability Week, both small and large players share and highlight their work with sustainability in different ways, the threshold for taking part is low and thus the small, good examples of sustainability that exist in different organizations’ operations are highlighted.
Sustainability Week offers a practical concept as a partial solution for a transition to a sustainable society. The issue of participation is also important and part of the main idea. Together, we can create a strong sustainability brand for rural areas. The sustainable development-week initiative is also eager to create links with other regions in Europe dealing with sustainability, rural development, and rural policy.
The sustainability week is arranged through a thematic network operated under the auspices of the Rural Policy Council and is responsible for the development of rural policy and the promotion of an overall rural policy program within the framework of its theme. Rural policy networks are funded from the national rural research and development funds available to the Rural Policy Council.
The Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), which brings together more than 320 organizations from the economic and social world, organizes the Festival together with its Members and with the support of Partners and Tutors, over a span of 17 days, as many as the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the UN 2030 Agenda. The Festival raises awareness every year among very large segments of the population on the issues of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) and the 2030 Agenda. With the involvement of hundreds of organizations throughout Italy, the network of Italian embassies and cultural institutes abroad, the active role played by universities and the collaboration of territories, the event reaches millions of people, confirming itself as a unique experience on the international scene.
Following the success of previous editions, the annual appointment with the Sustainable Development Festival returns from May 7 to 23 2024 throughout Italy, online and abroad.
The Romanian Department of Sustainable Development has been a committed partner in taking action and spreading the news about European Sustainable Development Week since 2019. In the last five years, the Department was directly involved in organizing
large-scale events mainly address to promote all the Sustainable Development Goals to general population. The first action was aimed at raising awareness about SDGs and was specially addressed to high school students which had the opportunity to take part in a creative contest. A big concert was also organized in Bucharest city-center where the sustainable – development wheel, an quiz on sustainability, which is still very popular, was used for the first time. In the last three years, the Department joined the efforts of one young entrepreneurs` community which organize „Dambovița Delivery”, right on the river shore, driven to promote the sustainable integration of the water in the city-life. Annually, for 2 days people have the chance to row on the Bucharest main river, to get directly in touch with the Department of Sustainable Development and to learn more about sustainability in an informal manner. The Department of Sustainable Development is also actively encourage civil society to take the initiative and organize different type of activities during European Sustainable Development Week.
2030hub enters a new phase in 2024 as we share our successes by accelerating the SDGs in new countries, cities and towns around the world, beyond our home impacts in Liverpool.
We are part of the exciting Local2030 Coalition, recently selected as one of the High Impact Initiatives at last year's SDG Summit at UNGA.
We will further amplify our work guiding apolitical, multi-stakeholder, accessible adoption and implementation of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda through effective stakeholder engagement, Voluntary Local Reviews, data platforms and bringing the private sector closer to the challenge through increased collaboration.