Transforming our Practice, Transforming our World (Part 1)

GEM’s vision is closely aligned with the vision of Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This was launched in 2015 by the UN as the most ambitious programme ever to set the world on a path to a sustainable future- a programme for people, planet and prosperity. Although the programme was agreed by governments, it was developed through a massive consultation exercise. The Agenda, and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that help deliver it, is an invitation to all sectors to collaborate. It is both a call to action, and a tremendous opportunity for GEM and the whole of society.

Everyone has a right to participate in sustainable development, and that requires organisations and professionals to be equipped with the necessary knowledge, attitudes and skills. To empower others (or help them empower themselves), we need effective institutions, with empowered staff. If you care about the future, and care that people are empowered to participate in shaping their own future and our collective future, then these workshops are for you.

This pair of connected workshops will help you to explore how you can support sustainable development effectively through your work. Drawing extensively on tried-and-tested existing pedagogies – Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education – they will include the following:

• Brief overview of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals

• Why museums?

• Using human rights as a basis for museum education, participation and decision-making

• Understanding resilience in sustainable development terms

• Exploring the educational aspects of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals: the opportunities of museums

• Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education: what are they and how can they be embedded in museum practice?

• Understanding your local challenges in sustainable development terms, and what you can offer them

• Identifying upcoming opportunities for you to play a bigger part: COP26 and the Paris Agreement, the Post-2020 Framework for Biodiversity, International Decades and Days, and how they can be localised to you

• Using the Sustainable Development Goals and targets to set a pathway for monitoring and evaluation

The aim of the workshops is to provide you with some background and access to relevant resources to support your work. Most importantly, they aim to support museums and heritage professionals to play a key role in the implementation of this agenda. The workshops will equip professionals with the confidence to support the people they work with to participate in shaping the future, based on their active, free and meaningful participation.

Through the workshops, you will explore how your current or upcoming activities align with Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, and how you can evaluate their impact using the goals and targets.

You do not need to have any prior knowledge or experience of working with sustainable development, and every participant will be treated and considered as equal – it doesn’t matter if you are in a tiny museum, or a very large one. We will work with your reality, challenges, and level of resources.

The two workshops are complementary, and you can attend both, or attend one. They will be developed to be ‘stand-alone’ workshops.