Developing key competencies to achieving the SDGs

My path on education for sustainable development started when I was finishing Public Relations at the university and had to discuss the subject of my final paper with a teacher. I was studying how Public Relations interacts with sustainability and the more I researched the more i disagreed with her. She thought that Corporate Social Responsibility was ‘bigger’ than sustainability. Everything went fine and some years before we worked together on events that had sustainability as main topic. We learned from each other.

Sometimes the University invites me to talk to students and even now, 10 years after my graduation, they are not talking about sustainability. As a Public Relations i learned that engaging stakeholders is key for having good relations and to develop an understanding about topics that are common to people, and isn’t the Sustainable Development Goals the most important and ambitious agenda we have as a global community?

In Porto Alegre, south of Brazil, i work with social and educational projects that engage people with the SDGs. They are games for public schools, free courses of coding and entrepreneurship for teenagers taught by volunteers of companies, cultural events in the city and workshops for citizens of all ages to find out how sustainable they are, and what else they can do in this worldwide effort.

All this projects have something in common that is developing key competencies for sustainability. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO said that “Now, more than ever, education has a responsibility to be in gear with 21st century challenges and aspirations, and foster the right types of values and skills that will lead to sustainable and inclusive growth, and peaceful living together”. I couldn’t agree more with her, that’s what I’m passionate about.

Education has a specific goal in the 2030 Agenda, but it it is also a key enabler for attaining the other SDGs. The Education for Sustainable Development aims to empower individuals to reflect on their own actions and make decisions taking into account their social, cultural, economic and environmental impact by developing knowledge, skills, values and attitudes.

In the following days I will have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from 999 sustainability passionates and experts at UNLEASH Lab 2017 in Denmark, the first of its own. As a Global Shaper I already live this global communities and feel that the energy that comes when we are together is what keeps me believing that we are already creating a sustainable world, and that the path can always be happier and powerful when it is co-created. Sustained success and happiness comes from unlocking the full potential of our talents and doing what we love, and I’m sure UNLEASH Lab will be like that. The chimarrão, a traditional drink from gaucho culture that I love, is ready to be shared with the new friends!