EVENT REPORT 12th EDITION
08.11.2018 - Brussels
the GENERATIONS CLUB About the event The Generations Club is the main Public Affairs event organised by JADE, in Brussels, and will undergo its 12th Edition this year.
It is composed of 2 main elements: > The “Senior” generation, represented by figures of both the public and private sector; > The “Junior” generation, represented by student NGOs and members of our network. It was first introduced in 2007 and has three main aims: > Bringing together the “Senior” and the “Junior” generation; > Discussing up-to-date European issues; > Building bridges to foster a more collaborative entrepreneurial society.
Generations Club creates the right environment to promote the dialogue between different “generations” through small focus groups, with the final aim of producing high-quality reports for stakeholders and recommendations for policymakers with the inputs collected during the event.
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__ The European Confederation of Junior Enterprises JADE – European Confederation of Junior Enterprises is a non-profit, umbrella organisation, that represents more than 28’000 students of higher education currently working in 330 student led-organisations from 15 countries in Europe. These organisations, also known as Junior Enterprises, are the environment where students can develop their entrepreneurial skills and culture while being at university by providing more than 4350 consultancy projects to SMEs every year.
__ The Junior Enterprise concept The first Junior Enterprise was founded in France in 1967 and in 50 years, has managed to be replicated more than 1000 times and counts more 50’000 currently involved worldwide. The benefits that Junior Enterprises have brought both to students as well as to the global economy have been the key element in its profound success and impact.
Its aim? To bridge the gap between the academia and the business environment, promoting the development of each student in an integrated network while supporting the development of the SMEs through consultancy services.
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SESSION 1 Creating Behaviours How can we effectively communicate the values brought by SDGs to young people and other organisations (i.e. student NGOs, SMEs, etc.), in order to make them ac¬tively work towards SDGs? The aims of the discussions should be focused, but are not limited to, the following aims: > Identify the reasons why young people and organisations are not driven towards SDGs and their implementation; > Identify the values that working on SDGs can bring them; > Identify methods on how to successfully communicate the values to young people and organisations; > Identify methods to move young people and organisations to take act towards SDGs.
Main Findings The results from the first session can be grouped in four main categories: 1. Education 2. Role of NGOs, Institutions, companies 3. Role-models 4. Social media and communication During the discussion we identified multiple reasons why people may not be implementing the SDGs, starting with the most simple and intuitive one: people do not know what the SDGs are. Regarding the possibility of people knowing what the SDGs are, it could happen they have no idea on how to act, or they either see no value in the SDGs or even think it may bring them a loss, whereas it is important that people understand that sustainabilitycan represent a benefit not only on a social
and environmental level, but also on a business one. One last possible scenario is that there may be some people already contributing to the SDGs without knowing it. To successfully communicate the value of the SDGs to others, it is necessary to bring the issue closer to them and to their daily lives. The most important thing to avoid when trying to communicate these values is telling people directly why and what they should do for the goals. People should be self-motivated and self-empowered to work for the SDGs. The values of the SDGs have to be shown to them, and people can be guided towards achieving them, but the motivation needs to come from within the people themselves, they cannot be convinced by someone else.
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Education In order to integrate the SDGs in people’s daily life, education is a necessary step. Education is at the basis of many of the reasons why people are not implementing the SDGs. Through education we can not only inform people about the SDGs, but truly turn them into a fundamental part of their lives. Lectures and specific courses about sustainability and the SDGs should be established by educational institutions. Starting with teachers, people should be updated and taught about the SDGs. After teachers have become familiar and instructed on what can be done to help achieve the sustainable goals, it is time to teach students. An absolutely necessary step to implement, is to teach children from very early stages what the SDGs are, and making them become part of their lives, both at and outside school. The theoretical explanation should be implemented with small tasks and projects about the SDGs. This way the goals become more practical and easier to understand, young students will
connect more to the goals as they understand the actions they are doing. Of course, it is ex- tremely important to tech to peole of different ages as well, , for example higher education students and workers. In general, for workers, the best option would be to have them work on an SDG project right after the theoretical training. After teaching and training people, and after having let them find their own motivation towards the SDGs, we need to ’’keep the momentum going’’, creating a sense of urgency and managing the transition from wanting to do something to actually doing something; by pointing out the problem even more and making it close to everyone, people will want to hurry and take act towards it. When starting out an SDG project, it is important to define what goal we want to achieve, both on a short and long-term perspective. Short-term goals are good to get instant feedback and motivate people, make instant corrections and adjustments. Long-term goals are necessary to create a real and stronger impact.
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NGOs, Institutions and Companies The role in the collaboration that NGOs, institutions and companies should have between themselves and society, should mainly focus in providing support and resources. These three players should collaborate not only on joint projects between themselves, but also on projects for citizens, students and workers. Support is necessary when working on the implementation of the SDGs, to know what is being done right and what not, and how to consequently fix that. NGOs, especially, should provide guidelines and suggestions on how to implement SDGs, as they have been working on that the longest. They should also provide trainings, mainly aimed at building soft skills for the SDGs for other NGOs and student NGOs, and also for their own employees and volunteers. Institutions that want to promote the SDGs should attend, together with companies, as many events on the topic as possible, especially those organised by youth NGOs. To efficiently promote the goals and make a change, institutions should start with young students, and then move onto companies and more ‘’senior’’ generations. Institutions can in this way advocate for SDGs.
If companies want to stimulate workers to follow them in their projects for the SDGs, it would be interesting to create internships based on the sustainable goals. This way, even students that have not had the possibility to follow a course integrated with the SDGs and sustainability, will have the opportunity to work on a project related to them. Another way to stimulate cooperation among workers, would be for companies to create some sort of ‘’employee of the month’’ award based on the SDGs and sustainability, so that employees can be driven on a more personal level to develop and work harder on sustainability as well. The same could be done by educational institutions, creating scholarships and courses for the SDGs and students involved in sustainable activities or SDGs-related projects.
Role-models As previously said, a really good way to stimulate people is to show them how to do and guide them, instead of just telling them what to do. This can be done through the figure of a role-model, people who can generate a relevant impact on others and be a guiding example of what could be done to work towards the SDGs, why it is important,
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and why people should be committed. There should be one more role-model in all institutions, NGOs and companies. Celebrities and other famous people are often used as role-models, mainly because of their power of having a very wide and influential reach among people of various age groups, especially younger generations. Role-models are ‘’different’’ from other people, but not because they are celebrities. In fact, there can be a lot more role-models with a more common background, instead of just celebrities. Thanks to social media it has become a lot easier for everyone to communicate and share, and therefore easier for non-celebrities to also have a wider reach within society. Besides, while we can look up to celebrities and idolise them, it is a lot easier to identify ourselves in other people more like us. This way people can feel more motivated and capable of actually working towards the SDGs and generate a positive impact. Since role-models give the example to others, about what to do and why it is important to do those things, they need to have authenticity, apart from a somewhat wide reach. They need to be real and relatable, and showcase their work in a very practical way.
Social media and communication So far, we have seen how social media and communication play such an important role. Starting from having social media campaigns about SDGs, sharing the word, explaining them. With social media we can create platform dedicated only to specific targets, where facts about the SDGs can be posted, especially projects and other initiatives. Communicating the SDGs should be done at a local level, referring to local examples of how the goals are being implemented, but always reminding that they are something bigger, something that actually comes from a global organisation such as the United Nations, and that people from all over the world are working on them. All NGOs, institutions and companies should work towards the SDGs and inform and give advice to others, showcasing projects and best and worst practices. Social medias are probably the best way to do so, and to also let possible role-models inspire as many people as possible.
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Activities We have discussed many different types of activities that could help people better understand the SDGs and motivate them to work towards the goals.Some of these are: > Social media campaigns about each one of the SDGs > Specific trainings provided by institutions or NGOs > Hackathons > Webinars to teach about the SDGs
> General gatherings to showcase projects done for the SDGs. One important aspect about all of these activities is the inclusion of as many diverse people as possible. ‘’Wisdom of the crowd’’ is an expression representing the fact that the more people there are working together, and the more diverse they are, the better the outcome of the activity. ‘’Diverse’’ representing different sexes, ages, nationalities, mindsets and more
Conclusions from Session 1 If we want to make sure that people really understand the value of the SDGs, it is necessary to show and guide them towards it. That is why the most fundamental aspect to implement in everyone’s life is education. SDGs need to be part of a person’s education, to really understand where they come from and how to contribute. A recommended way to encourage people to work for the goals, is to provide them with the figure of a role-model, that should not only be present in their personal life, but also professional, weather they work in an NGO, institution or in the private sector. Moreover, it is fundamental for these three entities to collaborate not only between themselves, but to also provide support and resources to the society. Most of these activities can be supported and achieved thanks to the wide usage made of today’s social medias.
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SESSION 2 Measuring Impact How can we make sure a project has the right characteristics to really help achieve the SDGs, and it is not just trying to look so? How can we measure the effectiveness and the impact a project we take on has on a set of proposed SDGs? The aims of the discussions should be focused, but are not limited to, the following aims: > Identify how to measure the impact and effectiveness of projects. > Identify the key characteristics a sustainable project needs to have. > Collect examples of successful and unsuccessful projects. > Identify the gaps between stated projects and how they can be corrected and not repeated. > Identify methods to move young people and organisations to take act towards SDGs.
Main Findings The characteristics of SDGs-projects can be grouped under four main aspects: 1. Problem definition 2. Impact 3. Stakeholders 4. Indicators, KPIs and auditing The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs have been approved by the 193 member-states of the UN in 2015. So far, no globally-wide plan for the implementation of the SDGs has been formulated. The responsibility to work towards the SDGs falls completely on a national level and on the states’ respective governments. The general contribution to the SDGs shared among institutions, NGOs and the private is still not so clear, but, what we have seen
both in the first and second discussion is that the collaboration between these different characters is essential to the complete and effective implementation of the SDGs. Nevertheless, implementing the SDGs and working on related projects, is something that should be done mainly at a local level.
Projects During our discussion we have identified specific characteristics related to projects for the SDGs, apart from those common to all types of projects. In order to create successful projects for the SDGs it is necessary to start off with some guidelines regarding the project itself. Identify the problem: why do we have the SDGs to begin with? What do we want to
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solve? What and who do we want to impact with the project? What type of impact do we want to have? What do I want to achieve at the end of the project? Learn and implement, be result-oriented. It is important to understand the problem, but it is even more important to start implementing the project right away and correct along the way. As implementing all SDGs at the same time would prove to be an impossible task, especially for smaller businesses and organisations, it would be sensible to cherry-pick only a few SDGs to initially work with, preferably those related to the company/organisation’s core business. Once the SDGs to work with have been defined, and the problem and reasons why it exists have also been analysed, it is time to decide the type and scope of the impact that we want to have with the project. The projects should have some very basic and common characteristics: > concrete and measurable goals > replicable: it should be possible for other organisations/companies to reproduce it around the world. > wide reach: it is fine if the project starts with a smaller reach or target, but people need to be able to expanded it, so that in the future it can have an increasing impact.
To decide what the goals are and how to measure the impact, there are two main types of information needed: inputs and outputs. Inputs are all the information that need to be collected before the beginning of the projects, to analyse the initial situation and get concrete measures that we can observe again during and at the end of the project, comparing them with the outputs, as to understand and measure the actual impact. We also defined ‘’impact’’ as the improved difference between two situations: if, once the project has been completed, the initial situation has improved, and this improvement can be prolonged on a long-term perspective, we can say that the project had a positive impact. A characteristic agreed on by everyone present at the discussion, is that the generated impact of the project needs to be a long-term impact. It needs to permanently change a situation to a better one, or at least start a permanent change for the better. In order to create the change, the right knowledge and resources for the project have to be collected. It may be necessary to request the help of an expert, or someone that has a more knowledge on the SDGs and projects related to sustainability. During this moment of definition, it is also crucial to involve the stakeholders of the
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entity proposing the project. Stakeholders should be involved in both the creation and final review of the project. This can boost collaboration between different types of organisations: institutions, NGOs and the private sector mainly.
Indicators When defining the indicators of the project, it would be recommended to also refer to the official indicators of the SDGs established by the UN. Generally, the indicators for this type of project should be both quantitative and qualitative, as projects for the SDGs need to have measurable goals, but the final outcome will have to also be analysed qualitatively. Possible structures for the KPIs could be a KPIs tree, or cascade of KPIs. The most important aspect for the KPIs and indicators is that, apart from being both quantitative and qualitative, they have to be as practical as possible, as well as auditable.
Audit The audit for SDGs-related projects should have a separate set of indicators and should be external to the project. A set of common terminology referring to the SDGs should also be made clear. It would
mean that when talking about a certain aspect of a project, the meaning of that specific requirement is clear and common among all the stakeholders and other parties included. For example, when talking about the SDG number 7 ‘’Affordable and clean energy’’, all stakeholders refer to the same definition of the words ‘’affordable’’ and ‘’clean’’. When looking at the generated impact, the measurement of the impact has to be extended to different aspects of the targets, such as gender, age, nationality etc. This way, a more organic analysis can be made and the impacted target becomes clearer. It is also essential to implement and correct failed aspect for the future. For example: if the project was supposed to impact males and females equally, but the impact is seen reflected mainly on one gender, the mistakes will have to be identified and eliminated for the future, so that the real wanted impact can be generated. Moreover, as seen in the first discussion too, it would be useful to have a platform, or some sort of dashboard, where institutions, NGOs and companies can share and showcase projects they have done about the SDGs. In order to share best practices, but also to share wort practices, as often you can learn a lot more by looking at mistakes.
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Conclusions from Session 2 SDGs-related projects need to have both characteristics common to all types of projects, and also more specific ones, such as: concrete and measurable goals, replicability, expandability. It is important, before starting a project, to define the problems, goals we want to reach and the impact we want to generate. It is necessary to also collect expertise and information, gathering inputs that will be compared to the final outputs of the project. The indicators and KPIs of the project need to be practical and related to the official indicators provided by the UN, and need to be auditable. Besides, in order to boost collaboration, it is essential to involve stakeholders during all phases of the project.
Final Remarks We want to thank all the participants who took part in the event and contributed with their opinions and views in the roundtable discussions. This report will be shared with all our private and public stakeholders to raise awareness and to motivate young people to develop sustainable core values and provide a better future for those coming after us. We encourage you to do that. Special thanks to Steven Price, Executive Director of the European Institute of Industrial Leadership for developing the framework of this event and being this year’s chairman, and to Arnaldo Abruzzini, CEO of EUROCHAMBRES, for ptoviding us with venues.
Participants Yvette Sweringa (CSR Europe), Gorka Guerrero (Erasmus Student Network), Tijana Stojanovic (Erasmus Student Network), Steve Price (EIIL), Lara Egli (EIIL), Ruben Viegas (EPSA), Chris Klerks (EPSA), Nejc Klopcic (EPSA), Guggi Laryea (The World Bank), Jan Van Baelen (EUROAVIA), Melissa De Staercke( Greenfish), Patrick Corsi (IKBM Sprl - Club of Rome EU Chapter), Maria Palladino (European Commission DG EAC), Diogo Parreira (European Parliament), Arnaldo Abruzzini (Eurochambres), Denis Hicks (UNECE), Jimmy Ebert (UniPartners), Dogot Arthur( JADE Belgium), Kalil El Kadri (JE Global Council), Lucas Mantovani (JE Global Council). ©JADE – European Confederation of Junior Enterprises \ jadenet.org
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