Winners Of UN SDG Action Awards Announced As The Global Week To #Act4SDGs Comes To An End

Four winners announced as the Global Week to #Act4SDGs sees its largest mobilisation ever, marking sustained commitment on taking action on the Sustainable Development Goals

BONN, GERMANY, 28 SEPTEMBER Last night, the winners of this year’s UN SDG Action Awards were announced at a Ceremony in Bonn, Germany, as the Global Week to #Act4SDGs came to an end.

The Awards – a flagship of the UN SDG Action Campaign – sought initiatives that Mobilize, Inspire and Connect people to drive action towards a more sustainable future on a healthy planet — those that are flipping the script and rethinking how we live. The finalists were selected from over 3,000 applications from 150 countries and the four winners were:

SUPvivors say NO MORE in the Mobilise category; The Masungi Story, in the Inspire category, CyprusInno in the Connect category, and Srishti Bakshi who received the Changemaker award.

These initatives ranged from female empowerment and empowering sexual abuse survivors, fighting deforestation; and peacebuilding. A panel of 29 judges, all SDG changemakers in their own right, reviewed the finalists and determined the winners based on the transformative nature of their approach, the replicability, and potential for scale.

With 150 in-person participants at Deutsche Telekom in Bonn, the message was the critical need for accelerated action and the need to ‘flip the script’ on the trajectory of our future.

Marina Ponti, Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign: “I am so proud to announce the winners of the UN SDG Action Awards. It is evident that their passion and commitment are leading examples of the transformative change we need to see in the world. Let me also extend my gratitude to all the finalists who truly are the lifelines we need to rescue the SDGs.”

The winners announcement was the conclusion of the Global Week to #Act4SDGs, a global mobilization which took place during 16-25 September at the same time as world leaders met at the UN General Assembly in New York. It brought together organizations and individuals in diverse communities to show decision makers that people all around the world are committed to take action to achieve transformative change by 2030.

Please visit UN SDG Action Awards alumni page for inspiring stories of previous winners.

The largest Global Week to #Act4SDGs ever

While numbers are still coming in, over 130 million actions in at least 190 countries and territories have already been registered, making this the largest Global Week to #Act4SDGs mobilsation ever, leaving little doubt about the scale and potential for positive collective action.

On 25 September, the anniversary of the SDGs, thousands of people around the world took part in a public act of solidarity to pledge their commitment to transformative change on climate, justice, and peace, by flipping signs carrying a negative word or statement into a positive one. Over 70 public stunts and activations took place, in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Japan, Congo, Ukraine, Germany, Palestine, Zimbabwe, India, Bangladesh, Italy, Pakistan, USA, Mexico, Philippines, Peru, Togo, Zambia, Malawi, Thailand, Nepal, Tanzania, Gambia, Argentina, Norway, Cameroon, Nicaragua, France and more. Key moments included:

• In Italy, singer and UN SDG Action Campaign Ally, Elisa, paused her concert at the iconic Sforzesco Castle in Milan and gave the entire audience the opportunity to flip a sign that had the words Guerra (war) on one side and Pace (peace) on the other.
• In Brazil, a flash mob outside Congress with banners sharing key demands with current parliamentarians and candidates for the next election to pledge their commitment to deliver on the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development
• In India, marches took place at popular public locations with the representatives of at least 12 marginalised communities including Dalit, Adivasis, Denotified and Nomadic Tribes, Women, and Children. This major mobilisation moment across at least 5 states showcased and shared the views of marginalised communities in various parts of the country.
• In South Africa, people participated in beach cleaning programmes and a Peace walk through Durban, Kwazulu Natal. This included an event where young people discussed challenges and perspectives around tackling climate change in the region and debating ways of reducing gender-based violence in South Africa. In Cape Town, they held a Roundtable Dialogue on SDGs, as well as tree planting in Gugulethu township.
• Social multiverse creators, Digital Village, launched a brand-new Global Week metaverse space where players can access a new and exciting virtual world to contribute to a ‘wish tree’ by virtually adding messages of hope, action, and peace to the tree. The purpose of this new virtual metaverse is to showcase how we can all embrace acts of kindness and create a spectacular display of solidarity.

Marina Ponti stated that “seeing the incredible mobilisation numbers from the Global Week to #Act4SDGs, on all continents of the world, has also shown that each of us can build bridges that connect us, bridges that inspire us, and in the end, mobilize us to take action for the SDGs.”

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