Challenges of migrants’ integration: get inspired from the experiences of Cities and NGOs – EPIC final conference

From 1 to 17 the UN has defined sustainable development goals, which should guide our actions and become our compass. Yet, how can we turn those goals into actions, making them tangible and understood by all of us? Of course it is a great challenge, but with a little bit of effort everything is possible. Hence, when developing its projects, ALDA has those SDGs in mind and designs its activities in order to not only raise awareness on them, but also to stimulate a change and promote concrete actions for their success. Let’s have a closer look!

For example, SDG 4 stands for “quality education”, which goes from inclusive learning to guarantee good education as well as supporting lifelong learning. ALDA’s Piece project, just to mention one initiative, is intended to understand and react to the needs of different communities in Europe through trainings and education. In other words, empowering people, by giving them tools and knowledge to become a valuable resource for local societies. Hence, by designing this project, and by including different partners, the final outcome will be the promotion of positive and long-lasting change, while making SDG 4 as a tangible concept.

ALDA has SDGs in mind and designs its activities in order to promote concrete actions for their success

But let’s continue with other goals. The SDG 16 tackles “peace, justice and strong institutions”, concepts which are pretty often used and discussed,especially the fist and the second, but how we can really address them is a different matter. Following the example above-mentioned, starting from the Schumann Declaration, the DESIRE project is willing to raise awareness on this milestone in European Union history. In detail, the project will stimulate participants to reflect on EU values – be they peace, justice and solidarity – by using different artistic and visual tools. 

As the case of the two previous projects, also EPIC project is directed to understand and address the challenges posed by the integration of migrants in medium-sized realities. And how is this connected to SDGs? Here we come: not only SDG 10 but also 11 and 17 are taken into account. SDGs are in fact strictly related to one-another spurring an holistic approach, a circular action that involves all of these goals. In fact, EPIC project aims at “reducing inequalities” (SDG 10), by supporting and developing “sustainable cities and communities” (SDG 11), within which migrants will settle and actively join. Furthermore, by including different actors – from municipalities, to universities and CSOs, EPIC has turned goal 17 on “partnership for goals” as a concrete and successful reality.

Finally, our projects also focus on the environment and planet. Here we would like to introduce to you FOREST project. It goes without saying that the aim of this initiative is within the forestry sector.  Thus, it is willing to increase and unify the fragmented knowledge as far as forestry management concerns, both at national and international levels. In this case, the project has been tailored having SDGs 13 and 15 in mind. The former is intended to fight climate change, while the latter focuses on “life on land”, that means acting in order to protect ecosystems and biodiversity. By improving the level of professionalism and competitiveness of forest workers at cross-border level for example, the idea of the project is to safeguard these green realities which are the habitat for different species and are essential for actors as far as climate concerns.

These are a bunch of examples of ALDA projects, but if you check our page you will find plenty of projects, each of them related to specific SDGs.

We are also delighted to share with you the latest issue of the SDG Watch Europe Newsletter, on which you can find several articles from which to draw inspiration, including news on our projects!