A decision to proclaim 21 March as World Poetry Day was adopted during UNESCO’s 30th session held in Paris in 1999 with the objective to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities.
Since 1999, every year on 21 March, the World Poetry Day celebrates one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expression and identity. Poetry is a driver of common humanity and shared values, a powerful catalyst for dialogue and peace. The World Poetry Day serves also to honour poets, revive oral traditions, promote poetry and especially, bring people together across continents.
Creative hubs represent a tool for innovation and a guide to entrepreneurs to bring social value to societies and communities through their creativity on local and global scale.
As the UNCTAD report (2010) states, creative economy has the potential to generate wealth and jobs while promoting social inclusion and human development. They facilitate the creative process of entrepreneurs by providing space, consultation, training, funding. Moreover, creative hubs represent a place where young entrepreneurs and start-ups from different backgrounds can meet, discuss, develop and implement new ideas, to building up a new environment able to empower different social groups and support their inclusion.
On the other hand, entrepreneurs and makers bring new ideas and dreams to explore within creative hubs, enhancing the heritage and knowledge of those spaces. In COVID-19 times, where entrepreneurs and makers need to be more resilient and creative hubs pursue innovation more than ever, spaces and opportunities to share knowledge, jointly analyse challenges and approach solutions will be excellent ways to surpass the negative impact the pandemic will bring at the social and economic level.
How has the COVID-19 affected entrepreneurs and makers?
According to your knowledge and experience, in which sense creative hubs can provide new opportunities to entrepreneurs and makers?
How to promote innovation and resilience at the entrepreneurial level in the new era?
Working together is essential to recover from this global crisis. From entrepreneurs and makers, to creative hubs, authorities and other third sector organisations to the private sector, we all have a role in building a post-COVID world that is better for present and future generations. Kindly share your opinion and views on how better encourage collaboration and co-creation within creative hubs among entrepreneurs and makers. Share your opinion, experience and knowledge.
By United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) mandate, the International Volunteer Day (IVD)[1] is celebrated annually on 5 December with the aim of celebrating volunteers and organisations efforts, promote their values and disseminate their work.
The focus of the IVD 2020 is “Together We Can Through Volunteering” in order to highlight the role of volunteers in raising awareness, inspiring others and achieving the SDGs.
“the efforts of 1 billion volunteers is an important foundation at a pivotal moment for development to enable us to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic”
(UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed)
During the COVID 19 pandemic, volunteers have been at the forefront of medical, community and societal responses. Community volunteers are recognised by the World Health Organisation as key stakeholders for risk communication and community engagement. Their effort during the covid-19 pandemic has been huge and should be further recognised. IVD2020 is dedicated to volunteers worldwide and aims at recognising their valuable contribution.
Some of the questions to be raised during the debate are:
According to your experience, how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected volunteering?
What are the most important challenges faced by volunteers in the new era Covid-19?
How social distancing and restrictions imposed has affected your work as volunteer?
What about digital technology? Kindly let us know how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the use of digital technology in your work as volunteer?
Every crisis brings challenges, but also opportunities. Please identify new opportunities of volunteering brought by the new reality Covid-19 pandemic.
How do you see volunteering in the near future?
Share your best volunteering experience.
Check out the provisional programme and keep posted to know more!
The COVID-19 pandemic marked a disrupting point for the world, compounded by an unprecedented global health crisis with severe economic and social impacts that highlighted existing inequalities and differences. Low income neighbourhoods are more likely to be hit by coronavirus cases and its negative impact. and impact as most of them may lack access to health care, lost their jobs and became unemployed.
At the beginning of 2020, the path towards the achievement 2030 SDG Agenda was on track and the global community committed to accelerate efforts and sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest challenges, ranging from eradicating poverty and reducing gender inequality to addressing climate change. However, in only some months, the COVID-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented situation and threatens to reverse years of progress on the global goals, on poverty, hunger, health care and education. While the virus has impacted everyone, it is especially affecting the most vulnerable people.
Urgent and innovative responses are needed to surpass this period of crisis but people should be at the centre of these solutions to achieve more equitable and sustainable outcomes for all. Against this backdrop, the community has played an exceptional role in the social response to the global pandemic by providing care and attention to the most vulnerable and affected.
Our planet is drowning in plastic pollution (UN Environment Agency)
The Climate Crisis – A Race We Can Win #UN75: Sustainable cities and Plastic-free lifestyle
2020 is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. In this framework an initiative for promoting dialogue in main global issues was launched to celebrate it along the year. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic marked a disrupting point for the world, compounded by an unprecedented global health crisis with severe economic and social impacts, climate emergency remains one of the most important challenges. The Sustainable Development Agenda urges us to take action to combat climate change (SDG13) which will affect more than 39 million people. Plastic pollution exacerbates climate change and represents a dangerous thread to biodiversity as plastic needs 100 years to degrade in the environment.
According to the World Economic Forum plastic production is expected to double by 2040. Each year, 17,000,000 barrels of oil are used to produce plastic, including 500,000,000,000 plastic bags used yearly. By 2030, greenhouse gas emissions from plastic could reach 1.34 billion tons per year what will affect our capacity to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5˚C. Plastic pollution threats ocean health and marine life as has a strong impact on food safety and quality and human health. Annually, 13,000,000 tonnes of plastic are leak into the ocean and 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastics. Current scientific studies are determining how microplastics can affect phytoplankton’s ability to sequester carbon dioxide.
We need to switch the paradigm and urgent action is needed from the industrial sector but from citizens as well. Single-use plastic products are everywhere and became integral to our daily lives. Actions to slow the flow of plastic at its source and its consumption as well as to improve plastic waste management are needed.
2020 is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. In this framework an initiative for promoting dialogue in main global issues was launched to celebrate it along the year. However the COVID-19 pandemic marked a disrupting point for the world, compounded by an unprecedented global health crisis with severe economic and social impacts. In these harsh times, more than ever global governance and leadership should be strengthened in order to build a better future for all.
