Three projects by civil society entities «with a relevant impact on advancing the 2030 Agenda, strongly inspiring and with a high potential for replicability» will receive ODSlocal Awards, in a ceremony that will take place on December 7, at 14 pm, at the Wyndham Grand Hotel, in Almancil, where municipalities will also be distinguished for good sustainability practices.
The prizes will be awarded during the ODSlocal'22 conference, which will have the theme “Pathways, Dynamics, Futures” and will feature Lorenz Gross, an OECD economist with extensive knowledge of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in cities and regions from several countries», as the main speaker, according to the organizers of the event.
Lorenz Gross will address the theme “From the territorialization of the SDGs to voluntary local reports”, «highlighting how the Sustainable Development Goals can be used as a reference for action to promote sustainable development in cities and communities around the world, bringing practical examples".
The event, which has the High Sponsorship of the President of the Republic, will also be attended by Ana Abrunhosa, Minister of Territorial Cohesion, and Luísa Salgueiro, President of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities.
The program also includes interventions by Vítor Aleixo, mayor of Loulé, Filipe Duarte Santos, president of the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CNADS), Helena Roseta, national coordinator of the Healthy Neighborhoods Programme, and Artur Santos Silva, curator of the “la Caixa” Foundation.
The program also includes debate sessions with the presence of mayors from the awarded municipalities and representatives of civil society organizations responsible for the awarded projects.
«The ODSlocal Platform has been very successful in obtaining and disseminating data on the performance of municipalities in Portugal on the way to meeting the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Platform provides information that is very useful and makes it possible to value and give visibility to the advances achieved in the various Municipalities», according to Filipe Duarte Santos.
«The 2021-2030 decade is crucial for many SDGs, especially those of an environmental nature, as we are in an emergency situation with regard to several indicators, namely those of climate goals and terrestrial and marine biodiversity. The present decade is the opportunity we have to reverse our collective behavior and save our precious relationship with nature and the Earth System", he added.
João Ferrão, coordinator of the ODSlocal consortium, recalls that «we are exactly in the middle of the period between 2015, the date of adoption of the SDGs by the Member States of the United Nations, and 2030, the date for which the several goals to be achieved".
“The pandemic crisis and, more recently, the geopolitical crisis associated with the war in Ukraine made it difficult to move towards the established goals. A new breath is therefore needed and the municipalities, due to their competences and their proximity to the populations and territories, are irreplaceable in this journey, as difficult as it is necessary, in favor of sustainability », he illustrates.
Participation in the online conference is free and open to citizens, and can be done following this link.
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