 Hi there, good morning, good afternoon and good evening everyone. My name is Jessica Esby and I'm a senior advisor to the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It's a real pleasure to be with you today for this truly hybrid event with half of us online and half of us of course being in Dubai. I'm very jealous, I wish I was with you all. Anyway, suffice to say welcome to this third Global Solutions Forum which is organised by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network with partners GIZ and Panorama and of course co-hosted by G-Stick Dubai. So today at this third solutions forum we're going to be joined by some leading global innovators and thinkers, people who are really at the cutting edge of trying to find new solutions for the world's sustainable development challenges. We have got participants and speakers from Thailand, Bangladesh, Turkey, Cyprus and Colombia which is just amazing and an esteemed solutions committee who are going to be joining with us today to reflect on some of the solutions and to offer their feedback. The topics that we're going to discuss and some of the innovations we're going to hear about are really diverse. They cover things like community conflict and mediation, natural resource management, education, social media and local planning. So a real spectrum of issues from across all 17 of the sustainable development goals. At the end of the videos and presentations and the committee's reflections we're going to move to a panel discussion and that's what I really hope we're going to get to hear from all of you, our participants, people in person and online. If you have questions and you want to put those to the speakers we would invite you to do so by tweeting your questions to us using the hashtag GSF2022. Any thoughts, reflections or questions you might have send them to that hashtag and then I will try and do my best to convey them to the panelists during our discussion. Then just before we close to make sure that you stay for the full duration of our forum we're going to have a keynote talk from Professor Jeffrey Sacks who I think needs no introduction. He'll be joining us at 1.5 GMT so just before the end of our two hour session. So without further ado we're going to kick off this exciting segment of the agenda and we're going to start by going in turn to each of our solutions winners, our innovators and we're going to listen to brief pre-recorded videos from them explaining their solution and then we'll turn to our committee for their reflections and feedback. So first allow me to present Saeed Minyer who's going to be joining us. Saeed is joining us from Bangladesh where he is director of IPAG and he's going to be talking about digital kick which is a really exciting social media oriented innovation. So without further ado over to the video from Saeed. We are very excited to be sharing with your story which unfolded last year 2020 last quarter as pandemic was spreading fast in the world including South Asia which houses one fourth of global population, one third of global poor. There was a sense of restlessness working in us because as we see many many people helpless not having access to minimum required health care services, daily labourers out of job, poor children out of school. So what could we do given a region of resource constraint what could we do and one of the thing that came out in our mind technology being a very cost effective provider of solution. How can we use technology to drive forward some of the major issues particularly SDG issues that the region was facing. So IPAG came up with the innovative solution of digital kick knowledge information content kiosk for supporting SDGs in South Asia. So digital kick actually houses 150 interactive audio visuals raising awareness regarding some of the key challenges that we were facing during the pandemic. The pandemic actually brought on a diverse range of challenges including environmental challenges, dietary challenges, social challenges and even economic challenges. Talking about challenges, I mean as you can fairly imagine it would not have been possible for us to address all these challenges in a matter of three, four months. So we picked ten key themes which of course you'll get to see. Depending on the unique socio-economic conditions of any particular country or region this model can be customized by basically connecting three key factors. One, what particular SDG challenge the country is facing. Second, who are the stakeholders who would benefit from this SDG solution. Third, what is the most appropriate data platform to connect the rest of the group. The policy, advocacy and governance in Bangladesh, that was brilliant and we look forward to hearing more about it from you in the panel discussion. But before then we're going to hand over to our solutions committee. So we've invited three world leaders, world leading minds, thinkers, communicators to reflect on these solutions and share their thoughts and feedback. We are joined today all online by Michael Shank, he's the director of communications at the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. Welcome Michael. We're also joined by Martha, get a tube, I can say he's a lead analyst in East Africa for development initiatives. I'm so glad you managed to join us Martha, I was worried we might not have you on the line. So welcome. And finally, we're also joined by Asa Child, he's a program officer for RUCN. You are all experts in very different ways. So looking forward to your diverse perspectives on this first solution. So over to you. Maybe we can start with you, Martha. Thanks. Hi. So if you just give me a few seconds to say that and then I can come in after the next question. Sorry. Sure. Okay. Not to worry. All right. Thanks Martha. Michael, if I can put you on the spot, do you want to share some reflections on that first solution? Yes. Thank you and greetings everyone. Great to be with you to talk solutions that are needed now more than ever before. Two things I want to highlight that I really like about this digital kick approach. One is that it's digital and interactive. I think now more than ever, given that people are closeted in their homes in their communities, they're not out and about seeing what we're producing. The more digital we can be, the more visual we can be, the more use of video. That is the future. That's what people gravitate towards. And so I want to laud the group for pulling together. It's not like 150 interactive visuals. That's the way we need to engage people going forward. And then secondly, I want to lift up their focus on resilience and mental health. We know now more than ever, given COVID, people need support for mental health. And so I want to laud that that was their priority. You saw the number one, the number two focus areas of focus, one resilience, two mental health. We need that support more than ever before. So just want to give props and support for the digital focus, the interactive focus, the visuals and video. And then secondly, the subject matter around resilience and mental health needed now more than ever before. Fabiolus, thank you so much, Michael. Isaac, can we turn to you? Thank you, everyone. Thank you for the invitation. And yeah, this is really a good solution. I also like the digital part because we've seen with COVID-19 that we really need to be online to talk with people. And also we can hear from other geographic areas. But also I like how the solution tried to engage a lot of actors. You know, we have students. We also need to engage more young people into solutions. But also I see also in the solution that there is also a really good way to replicate, as my predecessor just said. They also target other countries, regions. They're not in South Asia, not only in Bangladesh, but in also eight other countries. So this can be also replicated, I would say, in Africa, but also in Europe. How do we know, you know, this can also be a really good way to engage other countries and also other regions. I also like the fact that the solution doesn't only address one SDG. They address SDG 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 11. It's really a global view on SDGs, but also having this digital part engaging other stakeholders and also this replicability into other countries would also be a really good way going forward. Thank you. Thank you so much. I said, yeah, very good point about the replicability there and exciting that they've already taken it to so many different countries across the region. Martha, over to you. I hope you can hear us OK. Thank you. Yes, I can hear you. I liked the fact that it considers persons with disabilities because it has sight and sound in it. But I want to play a bit of devil's advocate here and point out something. It strikes me as to, in order to have access to this services, you need to have reliable electricity and connectivity. And that is something to really think about, especially if you're thinking of going global and the scalability. I also looked at who could potentially use this and especially humanitarian agencies that assist people who are in prolonged crisis or people living in conflict zones. So this is a very good initiative. So maybe in the recommendation part that I can think of for them to think, you know, as much as we want to have that digital service, will it widen also the digital divide, meaning that those people who have access to connectivity or throughout are going to use this? And also the age bracket. Is it the use that we are targeting? Thank you. Great. Thank you so much, Martha. And great to have some questions to put to colleagues from EPI to reflect on when we moved to our panel discussion. So thank you. We're now going to zoom across the world to Cyprus. And I'm delighted that Stephanie Launay Shalu, who's the head of the School of Law and a Professor of European Law and Reform at UCLan Cyprus, is going to be with us. Before we hear from Stephanie in person, we're going to listen to the video about this initiative. So over to the video from our colleagues at UCLan Cyprus. Today we're going to present you with a small insight into our long-term social mediation project. Question one. What was the initial problem and how did the team go about solving it? The project was developed from the social realities in Cyprus, which includes the historical division of the island, but which also has grown into being a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society despite the decade-long division. The project introduces social mediation as a tool for conflict resolution in a social context. The project problematises concepts pertaining to stereotyping and prejudices and tries to give ordinary citizens the ability to bridge differences and find common solutions to social problems. The solution that we are proposing through the social mediation programme are compatible with the UN SDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals, and actually specific SDGs, among which SDG 4, SDG 5, SDG 10, SDG 16, and last but not least, SDG 17 on partnerships for the goals. What is the one most innovative aspect about the solution? The most innovative aspect about the solution is probably its flexibility and easy adaptation to different social contexts. So basically this is adaptable to any group, any community, any context, any societal challenge. The project also benefits from a rare interdisciplinary academia-mid grassroots element, so we have the opportunity to bring hands-on research and apply it in practice in society. In question three, how can the solution be scaled and adapted to other contexts? While thinking about scaling the project, it's good to have in mind that the project already has a cross-border outreach and in the flexible form, if it adopts, it allows trained social mediators to introduce the methodology of social mediation as a conflict resolution to the needs and priorities of their respective concepts. In this regard, within an international context, the project envisages to partner up with initiatives from different parts of the world and train future social mediators, giving them the opportunity to identify through their organisations who would benefit the most within their own local context. In a few words, we want to go global and grow the sustainability of the network and the solution. Great, thank you so much for that video from my colleague from Cyprus. That's a very different kind of solution, obviously here we're talking about community social mediation. Switching gears, I'm going to come to Issa first this time and would love your reflections. Thank you. I really like this solution again, they're all very good solutions. Here I really particularly like the citizenship empowerment. They have this lens of, you know, they produce tools, they have this manual, they organise workshops, but also they created a network, which is also something, even if the project ends, we can have a kind of legacy there. And you know, promoting social mediation is so important because we're living in a world like, you know, there's a lot of conflict there and there. And putting citizen into, you know, into the front line, giving them the tool and powering them to really find a solution to that. It's something we all need to be involved in. But also this is also something I also like about the project is they engage indigenous people and local communities, which is something we also have to look at. And the project is really doing that. Also there is a kind of business engagement approach. There is a direct engagement with associations. You know, I work for IECN and also during the Congress in Marseille, we had a CO summit and it was highlighted that we really need to engage with business to get them into action. And also for us to get to implement the SDGs and the solution is really a good example, which is showing that. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much, Issa. Michael. A couple of things I really like about this approach. Anything that normalizes conflict resolution, conflict mediation, those tools for public use we need to promote as much as possible in the United States, which is my context in country, we're seeing erosion of social capital. So anything that promotes, promogates and normalizes conflict, peaceful conflict, non-violent conflict resolution, I am a fan of. So lauding this initiative because we need to do more of it. And especially as we see climate change mobilizing displacement and we're seeing mass migration of peoples. New context and new new Americans in our context in terms of migrants coming into new cultural context will likely see more conflict in response. And so this work is needed now more than ever before as we see this kind of mass mobilization, mass displacement, refugee numbers in the tens of millions coming from kind of change and extreme weather. We're going to see more of this. The equipping communities with the skill sets needed to proactively and positively and constructively deal with conflict is something we should scale globally. So I just want to give all my support for anything that normalizes these kind of tools. Fabulous. Thank you so much, Michael. Absolutely. It can be more timely. And Martha. Thank you. I really liked the grass roots element that it has. The fact that it wants to go global. But I wanted also for us, you know, like for instance, if you're taking the African case conflicts are usually because of natural resources, it can be grazing land, water shapes, control of minerals and energy and so on. So when you have social mediation, you know, is there a mechanism? Is there a framework where especially in social setups, those with larger population or control of some economic resources come out as winners? You know, when we're doing this, I'm sure this has this element has been considered. But for me, is it more of like prevention rather than a during conflict mediation approach? I would like to have some ideas on that. And then most importantly, again in the context that I'm raising to take care and to really reflect on this mediation approach is not coming at the expense of having justice. For those, especially with mute voice or those who are vulnerable, for instance, ethnic groups or refugees or migrants as Michael just mentioned. So basically to just ponder about a strong and many framework of intended and unintended impacts both positive and negative. Thanks. Thanks, Martha, really thought provoking remarks there and I hope we're going to come back to this in the discussion. I'm afraid I've got to steer us on again. This is a real lightning tour of these solutions, but we'll have chance to reflect a bit more detail during the panel. So now we're going to go to Columbia. We're going to turn to Carlos Eduardo Dominguez Moreno, who's a consultant to the Columbian Association for Sustainable Development and Industrial Ecology, who's joining us today with the video and his colleagues on an eco park, which is very exciting. So now we'll turn to their video. Thank you. We're here as integrers of all the groups of interest around a common purpose. Our purpose is to be a flexible, replicable pilot that can easily show how, when establishing an eco park around a microcuenca, we can generate new income for rural communities that live around it, but also additionally to take care of the hydropower, forests and the biodiversity that is in the area. The main problem is the quarantine caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which generated food and sustainability deficiencies within communities. For this, we have proposed the creation of eco parks, which help the generation of income and sustainability and well-being of communities. We consider that this solution is very innovative, given that it integrates many fragments. You find eco parks in other parts, but they have partial elements. In this case, this eco park first, you find that the majority are universal or private interests, while this project aims to establish the eco park and deliver it to communities so that they are those who manage and have their eco park fruit. Additionally, it has to do with all this topic that we were talking about, the care of water, the care of the forest, the care of biodiversity through simple technologies. We are going to intervene with the communities that are around it, so that they have better sustainability, much more sustainable technologies, and that they can multiply with visitors that are so easy to protect through clean energy actions, or water management, or waste management, and their sustainable projects. So, all these elements are integrated to generate alternatives that give an answer to those we are applying. The solution is easily scalable from this pilot model that we are developing. Once it is implemented and tested, it can be applied to any community that lives in the influence area of a river or a hydrographic river. Everything will depend on the resources and the participation of the communities. Martha, can we start with you this time? Yes, I really liked the fact that this is about community empowerment. This is about community empowerment, so I really liked it. Hoping that it considers three elements. One is having a watertight mechanism that such initiatives are not hijacked by powerful businesses, or business companies, or the political elite. The other is having a conflict resolution mechanism in it, and thirdly a mechanism of linking to a larger market. Maybe one question I may have for the Columbia team is that, I don't get if community members are supposed to contribute on the resources during this initiative, and if so, will those who are unable to raise their own funds have access to seed capital? Thank you. But I really liked the community empowerment aspect of it. Excellent questions again. So thinking about seed capital for the community's engagement, and also how you prevent private interests from potentially taking over. Great, thank you so much. Aysa, welcome to you. Yes, thank you. I really like, again, they're all good solutions. I really like the fact that this connects people with nature. Sometime we lost this connection into our daily job with COVID. So that we need to have a link with nature. And they're creating this space to get a community, like this kind of ecotourism, getting involved into the nature, but also the local community, they're involved in the management. She said that they bring the local community to bring visitors to visit the park and also let them know what is happening. This is also something which is interesting, we have to put human in the center of everything we're doing. And even if it's a project, we have to engage the local community because it's first day space. The surrounding is the environment. And they have to be engaged in what the project is doing. I also second Marta's comment to how this is putting into practice. Also to have more detail on how they engage with community, how to say, you know, fragile, the local community can feel of, do they have a kind of stirring community to decide on how many people they bring to the park because also we have to take care of the nature. People can visit but see how we can also, you know, limit the damage a human can have on nature. Thank you. Great, thank you so much. Lots of thoughts there, Aisa. Hopefully we'll come back to a couple of those. Michael, over to you finally. Yes, well I will be redundant here based on the wise words from Marta and Aisa but getting people into nature is critical, building that attachment. If we want to see behavior change when it comes to sustainability and climate change, climate policy, climate action, we need to build those bonds for people with nature so that they have that connection. So they don't want to lose that connection when climate change poses a risk to that bond, to that connection. So I love that this is nature focused. Getting people out in nature is critical. Love the local ownership, local management piece of it because that is baking in long-term buy-in, which is great. And then the economic development component, the ROI, the return on investment. I think with all of our sustainability initiatives in the SDGs we can easily make the case for economic development and the ROI. It takes a little creativity. Sometimes it's always there but that's so critical in terms of winning the hearts of minds and selling the concept to people in the community and outside the community. And I just want to lift up Marta's comments about conflict resolution mechanism making sure that's in place, which is key and also scalable to markets and access to markets. So yeah, just redundant for what Marta and Aisa said but great comments all around. Great, thank you so much to all of our committee members because we can see the sort of crossover between solution concepts here thinking about the natural resource management, conflict management and so on. So exciting to see that integration. We're now going to turn to our colleagues with SDS and Turkey. They have a very exciting initiative focused on local capacity building and local training. And so we're now going to have their video and then look forward to hearing from the Executive Director of SDS and Turkey to see if there is time for us during the panel. So to the video now, thanks. We are very proud to collaborate with our partners and work for the cities with a great passion to prioritise SDGs to reduce carbon emissions, to adapt to climate change and to inspire them to work SDG practices in the cities such as sustainable transportation, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. We would love to share our story and our inspiration for our intensive action about the localisation of the SDG 11 and SDG 13 at the level of municipalities. SDS and Turkey organises education programmes such as CTS 2030, localisation of sustainable development goals, sustainable cities and climate change, circular economy and zero waste webinars among Turkish municipalities. SDS and Turkey works to raise awareness on climate action and build capacity of municipalities staff on preparing sustainable energy and climate action plan and take action for climate adaptation. Some of the municipalities already began to write voluntary local reviews. SDS and Turkey contributed to the consulting, education and preparation process of voluntary local reports. These reports are the first voluntary local reports of Turkey. On intensive demands from these municipalities, we initiated our city's 2030 localisation of sustainable development goals, education programmes in 2020 and 2021. In our first workshop, the representatives of 24 Turkish municipalities declared their intent to help limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius by 2030 with the city's for climate action declaration. Over 1000 people working in the municipalities have participated to our courses and 35 municipalities have built their sustainability offices. SDS and Turkey also works to ensure that local studies are included in national and international reports. We thank SDS and Global and Global Solutions Forum for inviting us to share our experience. Fabulous, another great video there from our colleagues at SDS and Turkey and also nice sort of again change gears, think a bit more about working with local municipalities, local government actors and capacity development and training to support different scales of government to engage with the SDGs. Michael, you work very much with cities, local governments and municipalities. I would love to hear your reflections. I do indeed, I'm biased, so I work for the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, we're a global non-profit and I'm biased in the following way. Two reasons I like working with cities. Cities can move a lot faster than national governments, so on the climate front and climate policy, we're seeing a lot of movement in cities that national governments just aren't able to move on. The US is another great example here where cities are moving fast and furiously towards a decarbonized future whereas the national government isn't moving as fast as it should for reasons folks may know if they're reading the news. So why like working with cities is that they can move quickly on some of these fronts and then secondly they're closer to the public, so when we think about winning the hearts and minds and building public and political will, a lot of people know their mayor, a lot of people know their city council or whatever city leadership they have and so there's a relationship there that is helpful when we think about behavior change and sustainability that often isn't there when we think of national governments, so there's a relationship locally, the mayor, the city council, the city leadership is closer to the public, so when it comes to winning the hearts and minds it's a little easier. So I'm very excited to see what Turkey's doing in this space and SDSN Turkey's doing in this space and again bias because I love working with cities. And also just quick note, I am seeing on Twitter questions coming up using that hashtag, so I just want to give a shout out to folks to keep using the hashtag on Twitter to ask questions. I hope you do. Yes, you say much Michael, a very good reminder. Do you keep them coming in at hashtag GSF2022? Great. Martha, can we turn to you? Okay. Who am I to speak about? I have a few reflections. I wanted to reflect on the stakeholders that might be interested to learn from such a solution. I would imagine all municipalities around the world and also UN agencies and other local and international actors that are working on climate change and sustainability as well as agriculture. Maybe two observations here just to emphasize the need because you're talking about trainings and education and workshops, the need to have a strong monitoring and evaluation framework to follow up and also track the implementation of the action plans that are developed jointly. That is one observation that I have. The other element that I really like is about the voluntary local reports because I also work on VNRs. It is a very good one, but just to say that it is also good to have a shadow report from citizens or civil society organisations in parallel with the VNR so that you also end up having kind of an accountability stakeholder that will also hold your leaders accountable. Thank you. A great suggestion. Thanks, Martha. Great. Finally, Eti, you, Isa. Thank you. Yes, thank you. I just would like to highlight the fact that I'm really happy to say that we have the solution on Panorama Web Platform. We collect solutions all over the world and they are available free database to have a look at them. We have particularly the solution on the Panorama platform so two good building blocks there, which we call the key ingredient which makes the solution really successful. We have the education on SDGs and the cooperation part, the way we see local communities but also public authorities working together and also having this joint reflection on localising SDGs. This is something we should also look at. It's also a super good way to implement the SDGs locally because what my work in Kenya would not be the same in Turkey so they take the objective and the localised. This is something which is really great in this project. They also have this measure to produce a voluntary report which is something which also gives a status of what is happening there and what they have done so far and also which can be sent to the UN to all international organisations also to inform about the status of the SDGs implementation in this specific area, which is something I really like about the project. Also the impact, I see that they have like kind of thousand municipality that were involved in this project which is also super great and then something they could also do would be to look at each staff what they have done locally because when you part of a project or you follow a course you share with friends, with family which can also be an impact they can report on really a good project as a bottom. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much Osa. Great to see that this is a project that's sort of meeting both those building blocks so engaging with local communities but also connecting to policy makers and local officials and thank you for the reminder as well that all of the solutions you're hearing about today and many more are available on the panorama website so do have a look at that as well. Now we're going to turn to our final solution, our final innovation for us to reflect on today and that is coming to us from Thailand and joining us is Chol Bonang who's the assistant professor at Thammasat University in Thailand and this solution is also looking at sub-national levels of government specifically regional SDG dialogues so over to the video from our colleagues in Thailand. Hello my name is Chol Bonang from SDG Move Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University we are the national host of SDSM Thailand. Today I'm going to talk to you about the project Are A Needs report for the formulation of Thailand science research and innovation strategy plan. The initial problem of our project is that after the reform of national research system in 2019, the national research strategy plan was quite top down with little input from local stakeholders. As a result we developed a process to identify local needs focusing on regional level and related knowledge gaps and use this process in 2020 and 2021. We have also worked with six regional teams of scholars from eight different universities all over Thailand therefore stepped in this process. First, horizon scanning We use SDG as a framework and review related regional levels secondary data to identify a set of preliminary key regional issues. Second, scoping down we use the DFI methods to engage with and ask opinion from regional experts to identify top 10 key regional SDG issues. Third, regional foresight workshop. After the key regional SDG issues were identified the original foresight workshop was organized for each region. Around 30 to 40 participants from various sectors join and discuss about the future they want regarding the key issues both knowledge gap analysis the findings from the region foresight workshop are used in an analysis done by the regional team to identify the research issue to close the gap and we the central team SDG move synthesize the findings The output of the process was used in the formulation of the science research and innovation strategy plan. The most innovative aspect about the solution is that it is the first time the science research and innovation policy is localized based on SDG framework to identify knowledge gap we also apply several tools from foresight methods in the process which make it very participatory and forward-looking. The key to adapt this process to other context is the network to access the data and engaging with the policy makers Thank you. Another fabulous video and exciting to see that this highlights the importance of trying to take trying to make national strategies more inclusive more participatory but also exciting to see that there's been such wide university collaboration across the country because it's not just all of us that need to collaborate with government but of course different stakeholders need to collaborate between each other so and amongst each other so yes another great project I'm now going to have a final round of feedback from our panel so I'm going to start with you Aysa. Aysa, thank you. This is also a good one. As you know, Aysa is an organization we have a lot of scientists and looking at the local researcher engagement in this project you know like I'm also happy to see that we can put science and also science innovation together and deliver on SDGs. The building block and the project are we have the engagement of local researchers we have the technique they've used it's really innovative. We also have this data collection in order to deliver or to inform on something you need data you need to measure the quality but also the quantity. So they put together all this ingredient and deliver it on a shared governance model. This is also interesting to see that how we can put a lot of people together in different disciplines but they can come together and deliver on one thing with a common objective. Also it's this kind of diversity we can also benefit from. And this project is really a good way to show that how we can see this innovation working. And yeah I think this is also a great way to see how we can implement SDGs but also it also responds to this policy challenge we have now but also COVID-19. I just see in the challenge that due to COVID there were also frauds to exclude some participants. I would like to also just emphasize that you know like it has to be inclusive we have to bring people together but yes given the situation they couldn't do that it's really interesting to see this urban part and this science research and also national international and diversity coming together. Thank you it's really good. Thanks Aisa, yes absolutely again as you said very inspiring to see that it's a sort of a very practical example of research and policy makers collaborating together. Great, Michael can I attend to you next? Yes, two very quick things and I'll give an example in my role at Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance I'm moving from a director of communications to a director of engagement and that's illustrating the shift that's happening in our cities from the traditional monologue of communicating to the public versus engaging with the community and really changing the paradigm of engagement so it's more inclusive so that we're crowdsourcing ideas so that we're finding participatory ways to involve the community engage the community so even training up our cities in appreciative inquiry which is a model that I've used in the past and that others have used in the US context and with corporates to make sure every voice is heard and included and empowered in the process so we're seeing the shift in our cities so I love the shift here too and then secondly what I like about the horizon scanning and some of these foresight techniques we're staying nimble and adaptive to new dynamics and if COVID has taught us anything it's that we need to in our resilience approach stay nimble and adaptive and this comes horizon scanning always seeing what's coming our way is really helpful to retaining that nimble adaptive approach to whatever might come our way so those are the two things that really stuck out to me Great, thank you so much Michael and finally Martha can I turn to you Yes I want to comment on again on leave no one behind so first I really liked the analytical approach and the deliberate steps to engage stakeholders when I was listening about the horizon scanning the scoping down it just strikes me as you just have to get it right from the start whose voices are amplified how about those that are whose voices are usually mute so are you involving unions of persons with disabilities associations of women with disabilities for instance I'm just giving you an example of those that may not be included in such processes usually and I'm taking the context of many other countries so get it right from the start have your criteria one thing I really liked about this project is that the presentation says they adopted an SDG framework which ensures that the leave no one behind agenda is an integral part in the assessment and scoping one thing I really wanted to point out is I can see that this would need a huge input from data in circumstances where you have limited or lack of timely and reliable aggregated data by sex by age by location by disability type and so on you know you need to think beyond official data so have a template of if already not included have a template of data landscaping data mapping so that you also include include data that is collected unofficially by so many implementing agencies thanks so much Martha before we have to say goodbye to our great committee I want to give them a chance to say a closing word each and the question I want to put to you all is with all of these really exciting solutions which are all hyperlocal and very relevant to their specific context what is one thing you think we really need to think and keep in mind when we're thinking about scalability when all of the different challenges we face right now all the transboundary issues we face of course we have to stay contextual and hyper relevant to our locality but how do we also prioritise replicating things moving quickly doing stuff at scale what's I think one really important ingredient for identifying scalable solutions so sorry to put you on the spot but that's your final remark and then I'm afraid we have to say goodbye to our wonderful committee members Martha, Issa and Michael so let me turn first to Michael please don't smile so Michael to you yes so naturally my bias is as a communicator and now a director of engagement for CNCA so I think of everything as a media moment and as a messaging moment and given that we're quite a small world now thanks to social media when I think of scalability to this question making sure that we are communicating every possible opportunity afforded us in every bit of this process so from beginning middle and end as we're building out these solutions communicating to the world whether it's on social media whatever your platform is but seizing every media moment and messaging moment it may feel a little exhausting to think like that but there's so many small little lessons learned throughout the process that we should be sharing with the world with our community with the global world since we're so interconnected so that's the scalability answer that I'll provide at a very good one too thank you so much Michael absolutely there's so much innovation going on amongst local communities academic groups and so on that really don't tend to prioritise sort of self promotion communication and so on and without that we can't learn lessons from one another or scale things up so absolutely a very good reflection thank you Issa over to you yes thank you like my two world our cooperation like collaboration but also digitalisation because now I'm able to talk to get access to this room because you know I'm not in Dubai but I can see you I have internet and also I know about the project because they online I would say like has Michael said communication but also you know getting into more digitalisation put them online you know people together to collaborate together it doesn't have we don't have to be limited by you know like someone is in Peru and then we cannot bring him in Dubai or we cannot bring him in Glam but the person has to be part of the community we have to get them the chance to speak to have their voice we really need to see that but also you know when there is a lot of people coming together and the diversity is key and we can achieve magic thank you great thank you so much I think we've got a theme emerging here but I'm going to wait for what Martha has to say Martha your final words thank you thank you so as your leave no one behind guide I would say go for those initiatives that cannot afford to neglect and that make deliberate effort to include those that are often neglected and those that are often forgotten that would be my advice fabulous thank you so much Martha so we've got communications digital cooperation and collaboration and inclusivity as our three big takeaways thank you so much to our excellent committee of speakers from to Martha Lisa and Michael you've provided really good insights and I hope we're going to dig into them now in our panel discussion I do know that some of you have to go so thank you for your time and on behalf of everyone who's in Dubai and online a virtual applaud so thank you very much we're now going to move back to our panelists to the representatives of each of the projects that you've heard about today and have a chance to hear from you and I'm delighted that Saeed, Stephanie, Carlos and Tama are all able to be their in-person in Dubai I'm just sorry I can't be with you all and wonderful that Chol and I have the privilege of being able to connect digitally so I'll allow you to from our various corners of the world so if I can start with Saeed our colleague from Bangladesh to reflect on your project Saeed when you first thought about doing something that was social media oriented what were the kinds of people or communities you were trying to target can you tell us a little bit about some of the intention you had in designing a social media project for you thank you actually South Asia some of you must be aware of has a lot of contradictory facts this is one of the fastest region in the world before the pandemic struck but this also is a region where one-third of global poor live so when this was unfolding as you can fairly imagine in the initial days of the pandemic like many other developing countries and regions there is a struggle of not being having access to adequate healthcare services because this is one of the very densely populated region of the world so social distancing all this kind of stuff does not work in that part of the world so you have a lot of issues infrastructure issues, healthcare issues access to vaccine issues and if you remember at that time it came out in the national media how many people's life were perishing people struggling to have the ventilator so a sense of restlessness was working in us what can we do given the fact even with wealth you can't travel or even without wealth you don't have access so the first thing that came into our mind that the digital tools and technology are one of the very cost effective means to reach out to those populations now the question is how do you make it in a manner that is understandable because you are also dealing with the population not all of them are literate so all this thing in mind we made it very simple we identified the vulnerable marginalised groups women children, poor people parents and one of the good thing is because smartphones and other things prices have come down significantly so many of the people had access to those devices so the challenge is how do you speak in a manner communicate in a fashion that is understandable and secondly once you do that how do you scale up and get connected so as we moved what we were very pleasantly surprised to see the sort of responses we were getting so that sort of injected a dose of confidence in doing makes sense it is connecting people are responding so whether you are a helpless woman victim of domestic violence not being able to get out you are in lockdown to give you a helpline or you are a small business owner who have his business shutdown what are some of the available access to financial resources that you have so these are very small, small stories that I can share with you but all those small stories they are very important for all of us that is how we scale it up and within 3-4 months if you look at the reach 20-30 million people that shows the responsiveness so that was the sort of initial idea and we are fortunate it worked well people responded and we scaled it up Thank you so much I think you heard before from one of the best members that using digitalisation as an adult is just so fundamental during the pandemic for those of us who are fortunate enough to have devices it has been a real lifeline in isolation often without access to areas of green space so absolutely really invaluable thinking about the pandemic a lot of people referred to really wanting access to green space and to community areas and that meant about being a bit from Colombia and my favourite community co-park so I wonder if I could turn to and ask Carlos what immunity needs the park partly both spaces by the events of the pandemic did you see it as something that can really benefit communities to be able to get out and get access to the natural world Thank you for the question The central axis of the central idea of developing the project is because the pandemic affected and still affected communities especially rural communities that we are taking for this exercise rural communities have two characteristics that greatly affect them the first is that many of them produce elements or produce the food that the cities require but when creating the quarantines and the tools of the city then these people can't take their livings and their products where they buy them so that immediately they have no income for their subsistence the second is that they automatically because they are closed then they can't bring the other livings and other food they can't have access to health they can't bring tools that they need for the field because there is no communication between rural and urban communities so they are closed and there is no possibility to go and be able to generate the businesses the central idea of the exercise is that the communities have and improve their food production with the part of the organizations organized, not any organization because they they sow a lot of things but they sow little food that they can consume directly so let's say that there is a first step that is to have a food security the second part of the production because they could implement some better trouke systems so that the one who has milk can give milk to the one who doesn't have it and they can do another type of exchange in this way so that is the reason for which this project what you point out is that communities when they are closed by the quarantines have a way to subsist a decent way a secure way a way that does not take them and what they do is include them in a situation of poverty and enormous disfavorability on the subject of the pandemic so thank you for the question so the main idea of this project is to give due to the pandemic all the communities the rural communities in the countryside that were very isolated they were not able to sell back what they were producing for the cities and they were not able to take with them what they need to produce and other items so the main idea of the project even if it's around the watershed and the protection of the watershed and all this environmental context is very focused on give and teach the communities to be autonomous on the food and all what they need so the idea is like for the bike yard farms very organized so they can produce what they need for them but also to share with the community between them so that gives them also the possibility to get rid of money because they are back to exchange between those that have milk those will have potatoes so the idea is really to bring back to the community the ownership of the land where they live the watershed to be protected and that this project bring to them also this autonomy that will protect them from being isolated in conditions of like the pandemic great, thank you so much thank you so much to try to instill in local communities the kind of skills and the local independence to be able to write the kinds of crises that we've seen with the pandemic that makes me want to go to our colleague Chol who's online I'm changing the order slightly from what you might see in your agenda speakers but I just want to jump to my colleague in Thailand because of course you were thinking about how to localise this national planning process, this national innovation strategy was the idea of encouraging local sustainability local independence and local self-sufficiency something that came into your discussions about how to localise this national strategy I think the issues of local independence or I would say a bottom-up approach of development actually came up when we discussed in the original foresight workshops I mean at the moment Thailand is quite centralised in terms of development policies and also the research policies so actually they were quite appreciated that we tried to include them into the process and one of the ideas that came up every region is is that they really wanted to have a chance to have a say in how their region is going to be developed, the economic policies environmental policies social policies they want to have a say in it yep Brilliant, absolutely and can I just one more question for you while you're on the line so I'll answer if you've got a good connection right now can I ask how did you engage the national government I mean this you have to get the national government's buy-in for this to be sort of taken up and for your regional consultation to be ultimately effective how did you do that Yes I think the key the key ingredient is like the social capital that our team has with the research planning agency I mean SDG move has been working on SDGs for six years now from the very beginning of the process and we have been trying to be like the knowledge hub and try to support the social capital with them so this time when they want to localize the research policies they came to us because they want us to integrate SDGs into the process and then when we sell them we have the ideas of localizing using the foresight instruments to increase participation already buying from the beginning so we kind of design the project together so to make sure that the outcomes of the project is usable and in time for them so that it can be integrated into the policies so to conclude my answer is I think the key is like the social capital between the academic sector and the policy sector and also the co-design of the project so that they can use the outcome of our project yes Brilliant, thank you so much I think that leads quite nicely to our colleagues from SDSN Turkey and Tamara if I can turn to you obviously you were working at the regional level as well your projects targeting municipalities what inspired you to focus at this level to integrate with municipalities specifically Thank you Jessica first of all warm greetings from the warm Dubai as Michael has stated just a minute ago to work at the city is a passion but besides the passion I should admit that it's not a easy task because they are very complex structures and there are lots of structures including the cities so it's not an easy task but anyhow in every step in every stage of working with the STGs in the local level I believe that the focus and the importance of the education is critical and therefore with the belief of this thought and we approach to the municipalities first make an open call to them to meet them together and to work on the different STGs for instance we make an initiative to work on the STG 13 for the climate change and we organize a two day workshop at the university but together with our partners because we believe that the partnership is very critical and we work collaborating with different NGOs and with different international institutions at the end of this workshop we realize that there is a a big necessity for the capacity building in the cities therefore we just developed the program, the training program and we implemented also together with our stakeholders and in addition to this we also initiated the VLR process in the cities because we believe that we must empower the local sustainability encouraging the cross sector collaboration within the local administration and they are very powerful accelerators of the localization of the STGs at the city level and they helped to realize the current situation and also to monitor and evaluate the STGs implementation in the city level and we applied the Quadral Helix model which is including the public authority, industry, academia and the citizens and all together we work together starting from the initial phase to the end of the reporting and we all learned in this process so I believe and we also believe in STS and Turkey the partnership is very critical and a good tool to open lots of difficulties Thank you so much Yes, absolutely partnership and cooperation common themes for everyone and I think that takes us nicely to thinking about one of the more hyper-local solutions that was presented and turning to Stephanie who's running us from Cyprus to think a bit about the social mediation tool that you talked about How can... I'd be interested to know how did you identify this the solution, some of the tensions you were seeing amongst communities Thank you very much for the question Thank you for the interest How we identified Well, we work with any potential societal challenge that can be triggered among individuals among groups of individuals among communities groups of interests within communities or across communities so it is basically documented or evidence through research that we do and it is a realisation of what's happening on the ground so I'd like to come back to what we discussed on localisation sustainability starts or should start from the local level from the grassroots level that is because only when securing local participation engagement and empowerment of people and groups and communities can we expect a sustainable solution to be designed and work so to go back to the points that were made by Michael and Issa for example Michael spoke about I like very much that expression he said about the normalisation of conflict resolution tools every situation has its challenges every social tension has its factors, its characteristics so for us it was a matter of observing what was happening we started in Cyprus with basically the partition of the island and what that meant for people living on both sides on both sides of the divide and we tried to bring them closer to each other by explaining and by training towards understanding the other but that can be repeated with every societal problem and this is what we did when the pandemic stroke so when the pandemic stroke we actually took this opportunity to revisit what we had done before knowing that the pandemic had had a physical impact on communities in Cyprus because the physical movement was actually not possible so every societal challenge brings with it challenges obviously but also solutions that can be implemented through social mediation thank you thank you so much Stephanie really interesting reflections on this brilliant project it makes me want to go back to Carlos from Colombia to think and this also charms of the question that we've received on Twitter which is how are you working to encourage community engagement with your eco park initiative and I asked that also thinking about Stephanie's point there which is that you need to from the very beginning have all the actors understanding and working together to support the effort otherwise can create tension so yes how are you working to engage communities in your project thank you the question and the concern is perfect because when we were in the group developing the initiatives last month March 2021 one of the suggestions that the group that coordinated all this work that we did with Hei Z was that those projects that were not selected as or were not selected to meet the expectations to be initiative to have the replicability and scalability we thought in what way to the projects that were finally selected and coincidentally the project of Stephanie is one of the projects that we always consider that are important to take into account for the initiative class that is the one that will help reduce or improve relations between the members of the communities that is in Colombia and in the communities that are going and working will find the same problem because that is almost the reason the conflicts then this is a tool and the empowerment between the communities doing social work so that they can achieve that understanding and understand also that if they work together it will be strong for the community to come forward and achieve what is proposed thank you so thank you for the question when we were discussing a month ago of the projects it was evident that it was important to use the ideas of those projects that were not selected or even those that were selected to integrate them on this project also so one of the examples is the project from Stephanie about the communities because here the community is key it's human nature to have conflicts so as here the project is with the community for the community it's important that they that will limit the conflict between them and to make them understanding that this project needs them to be together and to work together is somehow saying that to not let anyone behind but it's also that we need to do it together so the project from Stephanie brings this component of limiting just limiting the conflict in the community itself eventually also with the other stakeholders so they can really be empowered to make this project their project and make it happen brilliant thank you so much and how lovely it is to hear that there are already there's already exchange of ideas between our solutions providers and innovators here and that we're taking things across different contexts I wanted to come to you Said and your efforts in Bangladesh because you noted and Michael commended your initiative for having a strong focus on things like mental health and so on I wondered to what extent you've considered things like conflicts and domestic conflict and concerns that has emerged from the pandemic I saw on your list you had identified things like domestic violence potential concerns is community conflict a strong theme of the kinds of materials you were trying to pull together and something that you wanted to share resources with the general public on thank you Jessica no yeah I mean you see whatever the issue may be whether you're building a eco park or you're sort of working on small-scale business enterprises or you're trying to respond to the pandemic-driven health issues one of the pleasant discoveries for the Korean course of doing this project we have been very pleasantly surprised that people who are living on the margins are not necessarily very resource rich how they could be so resilient and how they could bounce back and you alluded to the issue of domestic violence and as you know when people are locked down for days, weeks, months even in the developed I mean the more upper affluent part of the society there's a tension that generates within homes and you can imagine those living on the margins hardly making days means the tension sores up so the great discovery was reached out to those messages I'll give you an example what happened with one of the countries in Pakistan I mean we were quite overwhelmed by the sort of responses we got from a lot of women we reached out to us and we're asking that in addition to the health plan number we gave them what are some of the counseling side they can have and when we reached out to some of those experts we were quite pleasantly surprised how they quickly responded and what started maybe one to small queries from women who were affected quickly synergized and built up a community wide interaction exchanges because initially as you can imagine there's a lot of name and shame goes on people don't want to speak up but once you've given them a voice it's such a great discovery how many voices join in and what starts with a very small response becomes a social resistance for good reasons I mean many men also who are stuck there are maybe people who have lost jobs who are in a frustrating situation and the sheer magnanimity of people who are living on the fringes to come out and make available lot of limited resources to they have in support of their fellow peers their brothers and sisters in the same community was an amazing experience so while we talk about digital tools it is very important we do not lose sight of the human component that is the most driving force digital tools are necessary because they make the connectivity easier they make the reach out much more feasible but we should never lose oversight end of the day is a human beings is a human connection is that empathy is this community wise fellow feeling and if in that process our initiative the digital tools have done that we are just a connector nothing more than that connector for a good reason so no matter which project initiative you take end of the day is the human connectivity resiliency feeling empathy broadly speaking community spirit that brings us to the solution that leads to the problem solving plan to that all we are working for thank you thank you Syed absolutely invaluable remarks and I don't think anyone could ever disagree with that I mean if COVID has shown anyone anywhere in whatever community you live and is touched everyone equally is the fact that we have felt a bit more isolated than ever before and even if you live in a crowded place where the infrastructure doesn't necessarily permit that your life has still been disrupted in ways that you could never imagine then that has affected your community networks and I think as you say these platforms these social media mechanisms and so on are a really useful vehicle but what has made us feel isolated is the lack of human exchange the lack of touch of contact of feeling the sort of safety and security that comes from your human social networks so absolutely I think we all fundamentally agree with that and also of course it goes back to the point that Michael was shoveling which is so much this is about mental health and thinking about ways of strengthening resilience and wellbeing not just in basic medicalised health terms but in thinking about mental health as well so lots of great food for thought there thank you so much Ayud I want to jump back to our colleagues from who are focusing much more on the regional scale and the local scale and maybe we could turn to Tama and I'd just like to know what's the feedback that you've had from some of the actors you've engaged with on your training what have they found most useful has been really most valuable and replicable based on the different materials and resources that you provided to them thank you Jessica I think most of the feedbacks are very encouraging and it was a good model what we have started at the education program because it is not only a deductive method of training it was including the workshops and it was also including the different actors and the sectorial experts were just giving some specific explanations about issues and also we just enriched the training with some projects so in order to attendence to get more more accustomed to the STGs we asked them to prepare some projects and how they can implement some solutions in their community and they make a project presentation so it was a hands on training so it was a good motivation for us to continue and later on we got support from the union of municipalities and then we reached a very high figure of number of participants even 1000 participants at the end so if you look it is a different training and it was just also getting the interest of the next participants and they are asking when we are going to continue again and we believe the power of the cities so it is critical we want to start from the cities because they are a good role model for the other society, the parts and also what we have realized as Michael has stated it is good to start from the cities for instance at the end of the workshop which we have initiated this program there was a declaration was decided just joined decision of the participants, the mayors and representatives of the municipalities and they were just admitting to adopt a Paris agreement and they were also declaring that they are going to have action plans for their cities and this is critical because at this time the Turkey was not adopt the Paris agreement yet so before the government has just given their heart to work on this issue What I'm really enjoying about this discussion is that we really are talking about action at such different scales we've got the examples of very hyperlocal tools being used in Bangladesh for individuals wrestling with their own challenges as well as communities the Eco Park which is of course about a community and then Tamar talking about local government, city engagement the municipality training the institutional frameworks so that it can feed down that way and I wanted to go back to the national level with you, Chole and understand a little bit more about what did the national government in your exchange, what did they identify were the main benefits of this approach that you presented to them of a Tamar regionalised approach what did they identify as the benefits and what parts of it do you think they might replicate moving forward Well I think I think there are two main parts that benefit them the most I think the first thing is that they saw that using SDG is quite necessary in framing a discussion everywhere both at national level and regional level and when we combine the foresight techniques which is something that being talked about in the policy support at the moment they're quite interested in that so when we combine SDGs and foresight I think it allows them to learn new tools and I think they can adapt those kind of tools to other kinds of policies right now we're trying to push forward this kind of tools in the research planning agency but if possible we want to push forward to other agencies as well so I think that is the first thing that they find beneficial and the second thing is that for the planning agency the research planning agency they really want to make sure that that research fund when allocated to local areas is actually benefiting the locals but at the moment when it's top down the research program that they designed are kind of missing some important elements that fits with local needs so I think that is the second thing that the research planning agency find very beneficial because they can finally see the gap actually the gap in the policy and at least they inform me that they will use the findings from our project to fill in those gaps and then add some more issues so that the research funding can be allocated in order to tackle some of the local and regional important issues so I think that are the two main important things that they find beneficial from our project I think one last thing I think the last thing that they find beneficial is that the process and the network that emerges along the way in the past two years we have been working with like six regional teams and that builds a lot of social capital and the regional teams also work with several stakeholders in the region so the research planning agency see that this is like a good channel to encourage the utilization of knowledge at the local level so those are the three benefits that I think the government see in our project so that's why they buy into what we propose to them Thanks Charles Can I play devil's advocate for a minute and come back to you on something which is of course you are in a university collaborating with the SDSN network which is largely academic although it does have a mix of members and you are appealing to the national government to the research strategy the people developing the research and innovation plan for the government so like-minded individuals interested in learning new policy tools new ways of analyzing kind of planning and so on but have you had any sense that this could go, this method could go beyond the research departments essentially could this be replicated by other ministries across the government and do you think these techniques have got the potential to be used in other ministries and departments in other countries I think it's very I think there is a high potential that this can be replicated in other ministries or even in other places because actually when we use SDGs a framework combining with foresight techniques which is the techniques that allow us to involve stakeholders in designing that futures and also backcasting and then design the strategic directions to achieve that goal this is a process that can be replicated in other ministries I mean the part that is about the research is actually after that after we know the aspirations after we know the strategic directions that they want to take in order to achieve those goals then we use that to analyze the gap projects that existing so that was actually the key so the first part SDG framework and foresight techniques can be replicated at any level I would say because SDG framework allow us to frame things differently it allows to frame things in a more integrated way inclusive way and the foresight techniques allow us to engage people with more evidence space with more well-designed questions and processes in the participatory approach I would say so yeah I think it has a high potential to be replicated in other places yes great thanks Stephanie can I come back to you because you are also proposing a tool and approach a methodology if you will and are trying to promote its wide use and uptake do you have examples of where this mediation has been used in other contexts and what do you think is going to be key to ensuring it is replicated in other communities thank you Jessica I wanted to come back to what Carlos said and then come back to what you were saying before and it's linked to your question so the good thing with the social mediation program is that not only can be replicated in other contexts and we already had exchanges with Carlos over the months because we actually have been in touch for the past one year almost so as such the social mediation program can be adjusted to any societal challenge anywhere in the world because it is highly reliant on the local communities themselves so the first step is of course through this train the trainer is to have a good understanding of the mutual understanding of what is needed to address a specific societal challenge so basically the solution can be embedded into what Carlos is doing or anyone else is doing the first thing and we have successful examples of this happening already so we have had members of the social mediators network which we created who replicated already the solution in Asia, in India and also in Lebanon so they have been able to address new societal challenges within their communities by maintaining new social mediators and addressing a particular issue in their communities so that's the first thing and then the replication can also happen across the methodology so you asked the previous question you asked was about whether from a research perspective a project can actually adopt a more grass roots or practical or civic society perspective and what we did is that we work through a university that is a member of the local SDSN Cyprus but we work together with a non-profit organisation so it's the Euclian Cyprus and I claim that we work together so we basically managed to close the gap of the research by having the background of the university and the facilities and the support of the university and the research framework but also we are able to talk directly to civic society and to communities through a non-profit organisation that actually develops the solution so I think that's maybe another take away and another possible success of the solution thank you so much again very inspiring to hear that it's already being so widely replicated and it's been tried in so many contexts we're going to have to conclude the panel discussion in a minute and turn to our keynote speaker Daphys Axe before we do that I want to just do one quick round to all of our speakers one more time and just ask you to share a final remark a very brief parting thought we have eight years to go until we reach the 2030 deadline of the SDGs I don't know about you but I feel like the SDGs summit was yesterday and the fact that we now only have eight years is very intimidating so there's a huge challenge ahead of us and some very large what feel like intractable problems be it in resource management in conflict climate resilience a whole range of different themes that we've discussed today for each of you I would be really grateful if you could just offer one final parting thought on what do you think is really required to take some of these solutions to scale and to catalyse the kinds of rapid action we need to get to our very broad objectives defined in the SDGs by 2030 so can I start with you Syed and just ask if there's one thing you think is going to be really fundamental for scaling up these solutions and catalyzing rapid action what do you think that might be? Thank you Jessica actually I think you have touched a very important point and SDG even before the pandemic started had a yearning gap of funding deficit close to 2.53 trillion dollar as you can imagine post pandemic years will be quite challenging because a development fund will be shrinking while the aspirations will keep on rising so most I mean the foremost challenge would be how do we make better use of less resources even now I'll give you a simple figure I mean when we vaccinate 1 million people the GDP globally goes up by 8 billion dollar and you know the current plight is only half of the world is vaccinated we are not out of the woods yet so if you imagine by 2023-24 we are finally out of the woods I mean all those variants and everything we will be in a situation 2030 in between time will be hardly 5 to 6 year it will be huge challenge even before the pandemic it was a challenge so SDG 17 which we used to speak in a more lighter tone the multi-stakeholder partnership we have to speak in a much much much bigger tone with much more strength that means every actor, government private sector NGOs, civil society will have to do much more stronger role and my parting thought would be just follow the three simple Ds develop what you think should be done do it with passion and drive it forward and this small digital kick showed you we did not talk to any government in South Asia and you know South Asia is one of the most fragmented region in the world but we did reach out to 1.8 billion people we didn't speak to anybody, people responded so boundaries exist on maps not in people's mind so if you want to talk about global we have to start thinking global not in only our academic papers but in the action that we do this is a very small initiative this is very powerful we could reach 1.8 billion people using digital connectivity on our own and we came together so no matter which part of the world each of us is each of us has a role to play and it's the small things that makes the big difference that would be my take thank you Jessica thank you so much very wise and inspiring words there and I think it's wonderful to all of us even as an individual you're never at too small a scale to take action and just amazing to see the amount of impact that digital kick has had and the number of people that you've reached so really inspiring if I could turn now to actually since I can see you on the right of my screen Tama can I turn to you next and ask what your final reflection would be what you think is really going to help drive change thank you Jessica I think we need more innovative approach so in order to just fulfill the requirements of STG we have to think in a different way so what we have realized in those workshops there are some creative ways to solve the problems so I believe that working all together and building more partnerships we can overcome otherwise we will have more difficulties for a sustainable world in the future thank you great thank you so much Tama thinking creatively, focusing on partnerships fabulous Stephanie can I come to you next yes thank you Jessica I'm just going to echo what was said before the words were taken out of my mouth it's all about contextualization and localization I also think that we don't have enough narrative at the moment at the international level and that more work needs to be done at the local level so this emerging narrative of global governance needs much more work and that work relies on projects like the ones we are presenting today so on local solutions that are prerequisite to awareness at the international and global level so continue what we are doing yes definitely and developing new interactive tools that are a mix of of you know in person on the ground, grassroots level action and interactive tools and I would say one step further the incorporation of those methods and solutions into the curriculum into the education curriculum which is obviously at the heart of the SDG 2030 strategy thank you thank you so much Stephanie really good points there about contextualization but I really like your point as well about thinking about reframing this global narrative and thinking about much more about its local relevance and how to engage local actors in it in this call to arms if you will that is a sustainable development challenge Carlos can I turn to you based on your experiences the project that you've been doing what do you think is one really fundamental priority to scale effectively thank you the priority is first to be able to define as this is a pilot that we are designing finish defining it and adjust it to be able to replicate it and make it scalable at any level that is the fundamental the second is that effectively the project impacts communities and effectively contributes to the achievements of sustainable development objectives because as you have seen or have heard we have the community we have the environment we have the ecosystem that is to say what we have to achieve all the communities is the best profit of the ecosystem resources that is giving us the nature that is the key to be able to achieve a success and to be able to complete all the goals that the countries have set 2030, 2050 some 2025 and they want to do things early then this is a process where I think that there is a great world movement understanding that you have to work in fulfilling the goals of the ODS thank you thank you so thank you for the question so the priority is of course for us to define the pilot and to finish it so it can be replicated and have a real impact in the community and bring bring them really something to really have an impact and include the SDGs on the project it's important to bring all together the community the protection of the environment all these components should be not only a holistic vision but it's also a holistic action so all together to work for all the SDGs that we are talking about today and I consider that is everyone is taking into consideration this and is more and more something that everyone is understanding that we need to work together thank you very much Joel our final 30 seconds before we have to turn to Jeff what do you see as the one what is your final recommendation for how we can encourage the scalability of these solutions yes I would just add to other ideas that we need to bring people together and utilise the existing resource and knowledge but to do that to scale and to catalyse the rapid actions we actually need a supporting system for SDGs implementation like capacity building facilities finance for development for non-state actors accurate and timely data for policy and practical uses science policy interface and also domestic concentration process as a feedback to allow the government to be accountable to people and to allow everyone to learn with each other I think we kind of lack of supporting system for SDG implementation and we need that so I think that would encourage and accelerate the process more effectively thank you Jessica thank you Joel that's no small recommendation there so going thinking about the collaboration and many of the things others have raised but also just stressing that we need much stronger institutional architectures to support means of implementation so fabulous I just want to say that one thing I've really taken away from all of you and your great remarks is the point that Said said which is whatever you're doing do it with passion and it's clear that you're all incredibly enthusiastic about your projects and your solutions and rightly so they're really inspiring so thank you so much to all of you for your great remarks and for sharing with us the wonderful what you're doing and it's just amazing to hear how many people that you've managed to touch with these programmes thank you speaking about doing things with passion we're about to hear from a man who could not be more passionate about the sustainable development goals and the sustainable development challenge if he tried we're going to be joined by Professor Jeffrey Sachs I'm sure he needs no introduction but just as a reminder he is currently the director of the centre for sustainable development at Columbia University he's also the president of the UN sustainable development solutions network and of course are a host of the global solutions forum so we're very much looking forward to hearing from you Jeff can I turn to you now joining us from America I believe yes thank you so much Jeff and what a wonderful panel and good afternoon to all my friends on the panel Munir and Carlos Stephanie Joel Tamere thank you for all the wonderful work there's really very little for me to add in these closing minutes because the discussion has been so rich and the example is so clear so I can be very brief and I will be very brief there are three main points that I want to underscore from what we've heard the first is that we are engaged in a new kind of problem solving we're dealing with underlying deep transformations of our societies and of the whole world we're trying to reconcile economic development social justice and environmental sustainability and these are challenges that earlier generations did not face did not understand and did not confront the way we do so we heard from all of the panelists and I thought that was really especially pertinent on the methodologies the use of the foresight goal based planning back casting all of you when Munir emphasized the importance of participation the ability through digital tools to get very large scale participation the need for partnerships also as Carlos was emphasizing so we're engaged in a new kind of problem solving that's the first point our politics are not really geared to sustainable development in any natural way it's a new experience for our generation the second point is that we are engaged in a holistic challenge I like to emphasize six main transformations could you excuse me for one moment a brief issue thanks so much to all of you for your patience he left us right on a cliffhanger with his six I apologize somebody at the door I'm so wondering have you left us on a cliffhanger this is zoom world so opening the door and back to you we are engaged in a holistic challenge and I'd like to emphasize six main transformations that we face that are all interconnected I won't belabor that point the first is education skills innovative capacity we need a major upgrading in our societal skills education and the formal level from pre-K through tertiary education adult education public awareness education for sustainable development that's transformation number one transformation number two and obviously the pandemic underscores it we need a fundamental upgrading of our health systems both our public health capacities and our curative health our health care facility systems a lot of people in the world have almost no access to formal health care we have seen how deficient our public health systems are in confronting the pandemic the third major transformation is to green technologies in industry carbonisation of the energy system circular economy the fourth great transition is sustainable land use we're destroying habitats we're destroying ecosystems we're losing the sustainability of our food systems we are releasing carbon from the vegetative cover from the soils from the forests as they are cut sustainable land use great transformation is sustainable urban environments where currently it's estimated that 55% of the world lives and it will be 70% before we blink an eye and that's potentially good I like cities, I live in the middle of Manhattan but we need cities that are viable, livable, green helpful and with billions of people coming to cities especially Asian cities and African cities in the next 30 years we'll need new kinds of sustainable urban design and the sixth transformation which is pervasive it's exemplified by what we're doing right now is the digital transformation we have new powerful digital tools for everything for education for outreach, for connectivity for payment systems for finance for health care delivery for government service delivery for infrastructure management but we know that half the world is not yet on the internet not that it couldn't be but we don't have the financial models for the poor half of the world and so this is a major challenge as well as to design the digital tools for for example universal access to quality education universal access to medicine through telemedicine and remote diagnostics, remote image reading, many things that can readily be done now so that's the second major point I want to make think holistically choose your favorite of those transformations and work on them there is huge problem solving whether it's in education, health care energy transformation land use sustainability urban design digital applications the third point that I want to underscore and Stephanie mentioned it at the end and I simply want to underline it underline it and the fact that we're all educators also into this we should be putting this kind of problem solving into the curriculum of course at the university level teaching students about problem solving about the new tools about the techniques about participatory problem solving design foresight and so on this is clear but also in the lower grades in pre-k through upper secondary we have young people who are yearning to help address the challenges that they're going to face for their whole lifetime and it would be wonderful in fact we're instructed by target 4.7 of the SDGs to put education for sustainable development into the curriculum so I want to ask educators all over the world all of our leading panel members let's also think about how we can contribute to basically a mass generalized education in these issues in sustainable development in global citizenship let's work with the ministers of education let's work with our school systems if you're a university you've got a local school district that you can work with help young people to gain the knowledge technically about sustainable development but also the experience and problem solving groups of young people can work with mayors and city councils to think about the strategies for decarbonizing the local energy system or making the urban environment more sustainable I think we can add a tremendous amount of education for sustainable development and experiential based problem solving to the curriculum at all levels SDSN has initiated a major project called Mission 4.7 because target 4.7 calls for universal education for sustainable development and I would welcome everyone to join Mission 4.7 just contact me or Jess or your SDSN leaders within countries or regions and get involved so let me thank you for this wonderful panel let me emphasize the three points the problem solving, the societal transformations and the educational opportunities that we face and turn it back over to you Jess Thank you so much Geoff a fabulous remarks and yes I think you've done a brilliant job of bringing us back to an overarching challenge for all of us which is that we're all in the privileged position of being here today at the global conference of being able to speak to large audiences of people either in such a a prestigious moment as this with G-Stick or just in our communities or in our universities and let's really use that to try and amplify some of the lessons that have been learned from these interesting solutions to share these solutions with as many groups as possible and also just to encourage other people at every level and at every age to start thinking about how they can identify solutions themselves as you said again even at the individual level you can have a huge impact on some of these sustainable development challenges so we've got no excuse and with digital tools and technologies we can reach out to huge numbers of people relatively rapidly so really inspiring discussion from everyone thank you so much I'd encourage everyone who's been visiting online or watching in person to visit the website either the UN SDSN website the panorama website or the global solutions forum.org website to hear more and to read a bit more about all of these projects and initiatives and again just want to thank you all for your time thank you in person but for those of you who are in Dubai I would encourage you to please put your hands together and give a round of applause to our wonderful panel members and to our other colleagues who joined us virtually and of course to Professor Sacks for his excellent closing remarks thanks to you all we look forward to seeing how these projects develop and we look forward to the fourth global solutions forum hopefully this time next year thank you so much take care everyone goodbye