Happy anniversary to the SDGs - CONCORD Bimonthly Newsletter 25 September 2018

25 September 2018 Happy anniversary to the SDGs ! Dear readers, If you remember, one year ago exactly we launched our SDG anniversary campaign "Blow the candle out!" targeting Frans Timmermans, EU Commissioner in charge of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Three hundred sixty five days later, where do we stand? Has the EU and the world gone a step further towards Sustainable Development?! Well, there are improvements in some regards but there are mostly gaps! We are still very far away from reaching these goals and the yearly anniversary is the perfect occasion to remind ourselves, and our leaders, that we need more commitment, more coherence and more susbstantial changes to make our wishes come true! This year, we decided to monitor the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in EU Member States and compile the best practices we could find in a blogpost which will be developed all along the week. We hope this quite exhaustive list will inspire you for your advocacy work. Learning from each other is a necessary step to make change a reality. Don't miss the newsletter below compiling the different initiatives on that matter. Enjoy! CONCORD Secretariat CONCORD's NEWS OF THE MONTH EU Gender Action Plan: Transforming lives? Is the EU Gender Action Plan II actually transforming the lives of women and girls in the world? Has the lives of women and girls improved thanks to EU actions? With its report "Transforming lives: EU Gender Action Plan II – From Implementation to Impact", CONCORD aims to demonstrate how the EU Gender Action Plan 2016-2020 is being implemented. Based on in-country research in Rwanda, Vietnam and Ghana, CONCORD report provides concrete recommendations on how to bring about a more impactful implementation of the Action Plan. Read the report Future EU budget, the saga continues... On 14 September, an Informal Foreign Affairs Council on development took place. The external financing of the EU budget was discussed. Ahead of that meeting, our members sent a letter to their national ministers and to Federica Mogherini. In parallel, the CONCORD group went through the current proposal of the external programming regulation and proposed amendments to the recitals and the annexes. Read the letter Check the amendments Consult the timeline Look into the EU Crystal Ball - Interactive video campaign Ahead of the European Elections in May 2019, CONCORD developed its ever-first interactive video campaign targeting EU decision-makers. This campaign named "the EU Crystal Ball" invites you to experience a unique and lively insight of what future political choices might bring. Play the game, make your choices and see how the interactive story evolves. Each story is different, so is your choice! After having targeted the political advisors of the political parties, we invite you to share it widely. Enjoy! Play the game   Share Tweet Forward to Friend UPDATES FROM OUR NETWORK Manifesto for a Sustainable Europe for its citizens Today, ahead of the European Elections 2019, the SDG Watch Europe coalition launched a "Manifesto for a Sustainable Europe for its citizens"  together with a public action which took place in Parc Leopold, in Brussels. Sign the petition, read the manifesto and join the action on social media using #yEUManifesto The SDG Watch action Interactive Eurostat report on the SDGs Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has released a new interactive publications on the SDGs. It aims to help EU citizens to understand what these 17 goals are about and invites them to explore and evaluate the situation of their country compared to others. It offers understandable visualisation tools for a selected sub-set of the 100 EU SDG indicators.   The publication Partos Innovation Festival In collaboration with its innovation platform The Spindle, Partos organises the Partos Innovation Festival taking place on 11 October. This festival celebrates under the theme 'A Future We Want' innovation in the field of development cooperation. More information European Week of Action for Girls  The European Week of Action of Girls (EWAG) is a week-long programme of events and activities, based around the International Day of the Girl Child, on Thursday 11 October. EWAG asks the EU to better protect and champion the rights of girls, particularly through its external action. The week is organised by a coalition of civil society organisations, and supported by the European Institutions and UN Agencies. More Info Humanitarian Leadership Academy: online courses The Humanitarian Leadership Academy has recently launched a new online course on Innovation Essentials - a free one-hour course that provides a series of real-life examples of innovations from around the world, and explains how innovation can help disaster-affected communities. They will also be running a Massive Open Online Course on Humanitarian Futures & Foresight from 8-12 October 2018. The course was developed in partnership with the Institute For The Future. More Info Inspirational reading: Why we need to switch the story for the Great Transition to succeed Smart CSOs Lab published lately an essay reflecting on the role of activism in tackling the root causes of climate change, inequality etc. for more than ten years. It explorers why in the last three years, the conversations around social justice and environmental activist spaces have changed considerably. Read more EVENTS Effective collaborative processes in sustainable energy Organiser: ALDA When: 26 September Where: Brussels, Belgium Put an end to child poverty – Making the Child Guarantee a reality Organiser: S&D When: 26 September 15.00 - 18.30 Where: European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium   NGOs and Media: a new way to build partnerships with journalists Organiser: Mundo J When: 27 September Where: Brussels, Belgium Building public demand for systemic change Organiser: Common Cause Foundation When: 2 October Where: London, UK   Global Girls' Summit  Organiser: Plan International EU When: 10 October Where: Brussels, Belgium European Week of Action for Girls Organiser: Coalition of CSOs When: 8 - 12 October Where: online & in Brussels JOB OPPORTUNITIES Policy and Advocacy Coordinator Organisation: CONCORD Deadline: 26 September Finance and Admin Assistant Organisation: SOLIDAR Deadline: 1 October CALLS FOR PROPOSALS The latest open calls for proposals from DEVCO From 11 to 25 September 2018 Call for tenders from Humanity & Inclusion [FR] Add your news www.concordeurope.org Disclaimer: CONCORD cannot guarantee that information from external sources and links contained on this site is up to date or be responsible for external content contained in website links.