As IGEE’s signature annual event, the Global Engagement & Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development (GEEF) is the cornerstone for fulfilling the mission and vision of the organization. GEEF will serve as a platform for world leaders academics, practitioners, and the young generation to collaborate towards accomplishing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The GEEF 2018 Report provides a summary and outcome of the first Forum held at Yonsei University in Seoul, korea on February 7-8, 2018.
IGEE has uploaded videos of the entire event (except the parallel sessions) on our official YouTube channel. You may want to use the materials in your workplace, classroom, and even at home to spread the word and foster excellence A in sustainable development research, education, practice and advocacy. Indeed, that should be the utmost reason why Yonsei and IGEE mobilize our resources to host the international event on a university campus.
Facing the era of new crisis, so-called wicked problems must be solved with innovative and integrative solutions based on a solid global partnership for sustainable development. The first plenary session of GEEF 2018 fully addressed the importance of multi-stakeholders’ collaboration to achieve the 2030 Agenda with no one left behind. In the same vein, in the Opening Session, UN Secretary General António Guterres stressed that engagement is essential if we truly want to transform the SDGs into a blueprint for a new deal for a fair globalization.
Based on the success of GEEF 2018, IGEE plans to carry out GEEF sub-events on global issues for sustainable development throughout the year. The outline of the events will be announced through theIGEE website and social media. Furthermore, substantial research and social engagement projects will be actively pursued. One of them is the development of a new composite index on sustainability that will be a tool to build strategies and a culture that support the developing, maintaining and enhancing of global partnership and education for sustainable development. This project aims to provide a brand new composite index on sustainability and a follow-up monitoring system of the 2030 Agenda. By putting people and planet at the center, the problems of women & youth (people) and climate change (planet) will be given a high priority as the cross-cutting agenda for SDG implementation. The updated index will be published annually at GEEF.
Meanwhile, anyone from any part of the world interested in familiarizing themselves with the 2030 Agenda is invited to take the lectures on our newly launched Massive Open Online Course on Coursera.org: “Sustainable Development in the 21st Century with Ban Ki-moon.” Throughout six weeks, students will learn about the SDGs based on the 5Ps: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. Moreover, in close collaboration with the Institute for Poverty Alleviation and International Development (IPAID) at Yonsei University Wonju Campus, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), and other international organizations and research institutes, we are actively involved in the first-of-its-kind global research network on the localization of the SDGs, considering the fact that all the SDGs and their targets need to be adapted into the local context.