The SDG Implementation flashcards for community ownership & local implementation of the Global Goals    

It is firmly believed that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should not be separated from the global communities that forge them, and Gaia Education has developed this educational tool in collaboration with the UNESCO GAP Secretariat. The SDG Teaching Cards contain more than 200 questions on the system-wide approach to achieving the 2030 Agenda.

These cards enable a participatory and problem-centric group conversation and solutions oriented multi-perspectival dialogue. They invite participants to engage and to collaborate to identify actions and solutions to implement the SDGs in ways that are relevant to their lives and communities, locally. This is an effective way to establish local community ownership and realisation for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Flashcards are used in the SDG Training of Multipliers (online and face-to-face). Check out the freely downloadable SDG Training of Multipliers Handbook for a detailed description of how to prepare, promote, and how to use these cards more easily to promote community activist training, in various settings (e.g. local public bodies, communities, schools, universities, business etc.).

Details and structure of the SDG flashcards:
 

Each card offers some introductory background and trends (white boxes on the card) on a specific SDG and it does so from the four different perspectives or dimensions of the Gaia Education 4-D framework. This cognitively primes participants to think more holistically by inviting conscious exploration of the social, ecological, economic and worldview (cultural) significance of each SDG within the context of their community, company or organisation.

Taking a question-centred approach each card also asks a series of engaging questions (The colourful boxes on the card) about the local relevance and meaningful local implementation of each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These questions are also asked using the 4-D ‘whole systems design framework’. The cards challenge participants to think more systemically about the SDGs and to do so in a way that invites reflections about meaningful implementation in their place, community or organisation.

The ‘SDG Implementation Flashcards’ contain 3 cards for each of the 17 SDGs, whereby the basic trends on the cards of each SDG are the same, but the three different cards each offer different questions that small groups can work on.

In addition to the 3 times 17 cards addressing specific SDGs, there are ten cards that address systemic interconnections between the SDGs, offer a basic timeline of the UN’s sustainable development process, offer some context of the SDGs within UNESCO’s ‘Roadmap for Implementation’ and more.

In a nutshell, the cards are an easy to use teaching tool that enables facilitators (multipliers) to take the conversations about SDG implementation into local schools, town halls, community groups, NGOs, businesses, universities, etc.

SDG Flashcards are currently available in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Japanese and soon in Estonian and Danish. If you do not find the SDG Flashcards in your preferred language and would like them to be translated into your language, please get in touch with us to discuss opportunities to make this happen. 

SDG PROJECT CANVAS AND HANDBOOK