The Loulé Chamber brought together representatives from various sectors, «from schools to the largest commercial space in the municipality, from the associative movement to companies, not forgetting parish councils and the entire public sector», in the session “SDGs in Action”, dedicated to the Objectives of Sustainable Development, which took place on Thursday.
After, in recent years, the Municipality has devoted much of its energy to the “location and implementation” of the SDGs defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, approved in 2015, «the idea from now on is to “go up a level” and involve more and more civil society actors in this collective initiative», according to the Loulé Chamber.
Last week's session aimed precisely at «bringing together the agents and debating the challenges ahead».
The initiative featured a round table, moderated by David Avelar, from the company “2Adapt” and the ODS Local platform, which included Ana Antunes, from Mar Shopping, Renata Afonso, from Escola Secundária de Loulé, and Ana Arsénio, from Associação In Crazy.
The idea of the Loulé municipality, which organized the event, was to learn about projects «in three areas with different characteristics, but that show the same commitment and desire to get involved in this policy of sustainable development».
As explained by the director of Mar Shopping, ODS 17, the company Inka, which manages the commercial space, assumes itself as an organization «which has in its DNA managing positive impacts on people's lives», which justifies the bet on « so many projects» linked to sustainability».´~
Ana Antunes, highlighted the importance that the company attaches to partnerships (SDG7), but also to areas such as Health (SDG 3), with free prostate screenings or breast cancer prevention actions, or the environmental practices that aimed at mitigating the effects of climate action (SDG 13), such as the recycling of bio-waste throughout the shopping center catering sector, deserve the attention of this large area.
At Escola Secundária de Loulé, a privileged “ecosystem” for disseminating the SDGs among young people, these concerns have become more evident since the Sustainability Office was created in 2011.
This helped that the SDGs were «very well accepted, both by students and faculty».
Currently, this theme is explored, above all, in extracurricular activities, but Secundária de Loulé intends to innovate and be the first school in the Algarve with an educational project where the SDGs are inscribed, «as of the next school year».
In this case, SDG 4 – quality education – is the main focus of activities. «But at Loulé Secondary, the environmental commitment is also evident, which is why SDG 13 (climate action) is in most of the projects», according to the Chamber.
On the part of Associação In Loco, the great challenge is «to get our hands dirty because this is not an opportunity, it is a necessity», according to Ana Arsénio, for whom the greatest difficulty in implementing the objectives is, in some cases, due to the fact that the association is often dependent on «short-term funding», which is not always consistent with «the speed of the processes».
As an association set up in the middle of the Algarve mountains, the «training and training of women in this rural context» has been one of the most evident works, which is why SDG 4 (quality education) and 5 (gender equality) are present.
In Loco also focuses on issues related to environmental sustainability (SDGs 11, 12 and 13), Ana Arsénio also highlights the importance of partnerships (SDG 17): “We will not go far alone!”.
The three officials also argued that it is essential to work with young people, but also to enforce legislation. Since they believe that there is still some lack of knowledge on the part of citizens, they defend more information and a strengthening of partnerships.
In the opinion of Vítor Aleixo, mayor of Loulé, «a good action to implement the SDGs is not something that should remain within the limits of public organisations», advocating the involvement of «schools, associations, companies, the whole community».
«We have to give people the floor because nobody owns this issue. Our role is to seduce. Thank you for getting involved, you can count on the Municipality of Loulé, as we are counting on you to carry out what is a global task”, concludes the mayor of Loulé.
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