From Awareness to Accountability
Read 10 min
“Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been,” cautions António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Responding to the seriousness of that claim, Pieter van der Hijden and his colleagues in the Fab Labs and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) global working group—Enrico Bassi, Vaneza Caycho Ñuflo, Nagwa ElNwishy, Neville Govender, Ted Hung, Arundhati Jadhav, Beno Juarez, Yogesh Kulkarni, Noksy Letsoalo, Lucía Lucas, Jean-Baptiste Natali, and Mess Wright—have conceived a four-step process to help Fab Labs become active participants in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: awareness, alignment, action, and accountability.
As with any campaign, the first and most significant hurdle to overcome is building awareness of the Agenda’s purpose. So, let’s begin there. How familiar are you with the SDGs? Before reading any further, take this short quiz to gauge your level of understanding. Once you’ve finished (Don’t worry about your score!), take a moment to reflect on each question, the correct response, and its implications.
The UN SDGs are a call to action for people of every nation to come together in partnership to bring about peace and prosperity for all inhabitants of our planet and the planet itself. Taking a multi-pronged approach to combating poverty, deprivation, inequality, and climate devastation, while simultaneously improving the quality of education and healthcare the world over, these goals form the core of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They also underpin the Fab Foundation’s mission of leveraging the transformative power of education, technology, and advanced manufacturing to build equitable, inclusive, and sustainable futures for all members of our global society.
Explore this interactive mindmap (also available in Dutch, French, Indonesian, Portuguese, and Spanish) to learn more about each of the SDGs and their corresponding sub-goals. As you read, consider how these ideas relate to the lived experiences of those in your local community, region, or nation. (You can track the progress of your own country—or any of the 193 UN Member States—toward achieving the goals in this dashboard from the UNSDSN.) How might your Fab Lab get involved with the SDGs to advance the Agenda for Sustainable Development?
The SDGs are a powerful organizing structure that can both strengthen the Fab Lab Network and increase its social impact. Yet, of the 2,468 Fab Labs currently registered in fablabs.io, only about 500 have an active SDG profile. As stewards of the international Fab Lab Network, we’d like to see that number increase dramatically. In the preamble to their 2030 Agenda, the United Nations pledge that “no one will be left behind” in the collective journey to global sustainability and resilience. As such, we would ultimately like to see 100% participation in SDG action across the broad Fab Lab Network.
The Fab Labs and UN Sustainable Development Goals global working group has linked Fab Lab SDG profile data with the fablabs.io registry. Results can be seen in this SDG profile overview. Of course, the quality of that overview depends upon the accuracy of the data submitted to fablabs.io. For each Fab Lab to be visible across the network, included in important network statistics, able to play a key role in global partnerships, and clearly demonstrate the network’s SDG impact, it is essential to have complete and correct entries in the global registry of Fab Labs.
Please take a look at your Fab Lab’s listing in the fablabs.io registry and, if necessary, update the displayed information.
A few things to note:
With that information in place, it’s time to give serious consideration to your Fab Lab’s role in the global effort being put forth to meet the SDGs.
You’re ready for a deep dive into the interactive mindmap. Spend some time thoroughly reviewing the main goals, their respective sub-goals, and the ways in which they reflect the needs and aspirations of your community. Think of the strengths and interests of your Fab Lab, your areas of expertise, your community ethos, and your mission. How do those align with the stated objectives of particular SDGs?
As you begin to develop your SDG profile, aim to select three or four goals from the list that fit best with the work that your Fab Lab is currently doing. Ideally, your chosen goals will also provide greater focus and direction for your future endeavors. Commit to appropriate action that will bolster your Fab Lab’s capacity to bring about real, positive change at the local scale, with global implications.
If your Fab Lab does not yet have an SDG profile, we encourage you to create one now and submit it to the Fab Labs and UN Sustainable Development Goals global working group. There are two different ways to achieve this:
In either case, the working group will collect your submission and offer suggestions for follow-up activities. Once the submission is processed, it will be added to the SDG profile overview, which is updated monthly. The working group shares all data and software via GitLab and includes the profiles in a variety of reports. This is where SDG accountability truly begins.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please follow up directly with Pieter van der Hijden: pvdh@sofos.nl. He and his colleagues have been working tirelessly to keep the fablabs.io registry updated and get all Fab Labs around the world aligned to an appropriate set of SDGs. He will happily help you address any concerns regarding your SDG profile.
The Fab Labs and UN Sustainable Development Goals global working group will also be conducting a series of talks and workshops on SDGs—covering the spectrum from awareness to accountability—at FAB24 México this summer. Join us in Puebla to get hands-on experience and learn how your Fab Lab can meaningfully contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In the meantime, keep an eye on the working group’s FAB24 landing page for updates.
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