Sustainable Development

U of T students, researchers brainstorm ways to advance UN Sustainable Development Goals

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 21:41:17 +0000

U of T students, researchers brainstorm ways to advance UN Sustainable Development Goals

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 02/02/2021 - 16:41

Cutline

Sustainable development considerations have been incorporated into a wide array of U of T projects and initiatives, including the Landmark Project and an associated geoexchange field beneath Front Campus (photo by Daria Perevezentsev)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Global Lens

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Global

Joseph Wong

Meric Gertler

Sustainability

Sustainable Development

United Nations

Until recently, the sweeping international framework of the United Nations’ sustainable development priorities didn’t occupy much of Travonne Edwards’s attention.

As a PhD student in the ��Ƶ’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work – researching racial disparities for Black families in Ontario’s child welfare system – Edwards’s academic concerns lay closer to home, and within the realms of social work and racial equity.

But that began to change after Edwards, on the advice of a professor, took part in a recent event that aimed to encourage graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and professors to find ways to incorporate the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals – better known as SDGs – into their academic activities.

The 17 Zoom Rooms @ U of T event, held in early December, saw Edwards and more than 120 other participants assigned to one of 17 virtual “rooms” where they were invited to generate ideas on how to advance the SDGs at the university and beyond.

Edwards says the workshops were an eye-opener.

“Often times, when I think about research, it’s often conducted within one’s own faculty or institution. This was one of the first times I’ve been introduced to such a variety of folks interested in the same things as me but bringing different research backgrounds, disciplines and discourses,” he says.

“The main takeaway for me was the importance of being open-minded and innovative and to continue to push myself to think beyond the social work realm and include other areas – like tech, science and nutrition –to address issues of inequality.”

The U of T event was inspired by the 17 Rooms Initiative launched by the Brookings Institution and the Rockefeller Foundation to stimulate innovative forms of collective action aimed at advancing the SDGs, which were adopted by UN member nations in 2015.

“This event aligns strongly with U of T’s ongoing commitment to community engagement, to addressing larger societal challenges and to fostering a global mindset among our students, staff and professoriate,” said U of T President Meric Gertler in a video message welcoming participants to the event.

“The Sustainable Development Goals are not only a set of commitments, but a powerful framework that explicitly acknowledges the interrelationship between all 17 goals. Indeed, to address poverty we must advance education and health, but also develop sustainable cities and communities, tackle climate change and maintain socially just institutions.”

President Gertler noted that U of T is already deeply engaged in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. This includes initiatives across the university, through the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability, and leadership on the national level, such as the responsible investing charter adopted by many Canadian universities last year.

He added that sustainable development considerations have been incorporated into a vast array of university projects and initiatives, from the complex urban challenges examined by U of T’s School of Cities to the equity and inclusion work with Indigenous communities and campus revitalization efforts such as the Landmark Project.

“Our remarkable contributions to community and global health, our scholarship on clean energy and water and our expertise in education – to name but a few examples – all contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals,” President Gertler said.

Laura Chiavaroli, a post-doctoral researcher in the department of nutritional sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine who participated in the 17 Zoom Rooms, traces her enthusiasm to participate in the event back to her involvement in an event last year that looked to encourage innovative ways to pursue the SDGs at U of T.

“It was such a great event. The organizers have such a passion and energy about them that you really feel happy to be a part of these events and the good and important work that U of T is doing in this area,” Chiavaroli said.

“So when I saw that this [17 Zoom Rooms] event was happening, I immediately wanted to partake.”

Chiavaroli was assigned to a room dedicated to exploring “Quality of Education,” which revolves around ensuring inclusive and equitable education for all.

She said a key theme that kept popping up in her room’s deliberations was the importance of fostering inter-disciplinary collaboration to help advance issues around equity in education, as well as matters pertinent to the 16 other sustainable development goals.

“What we learned is that there really is an energetic community of U of T people who are interested and want to be part of change,” Chiavaroli says. “The one thing that we concluded was that we need to work less in silos. There is collaboration happening, but the kind of interconnectedness that’s needed between the different disciplines to help address the SDGs is a leap that we have to undertake.”

Chiavaroli, whose post-doctoral work looks at the relationship between dietary patterns and health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, says her exposure to the UN’s sustainable development goals is also influencing the way she goes about her research.

“Our work is very focused on health, but what are the environmental implications of adopting a dietary pattern? We’re trying to get environmentalists involved in the work to learn from them. We’ve got some health economics people as well, because you want to be assessing the cost of diets and whether they can be adopted by people who have financial challenges or are food-insecure,” she says. “So, having these SDGs in mind really helps to think about your project on a global scale – where it’s going to have the biggest impact.”

Joseph Wong, U of T’s interim vice-president, international and a professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, says the 17 Zoom Rooms event exemplified the U of T community’s collective commitment to fostering conversations, innovations and actions aimed at having a global impact.

“What today represents is a conversation-starter,” Wong said during the event. “All of you are colleagues who work in or teach about – in some way – the Sustainable Development Goals. All of you represent precisely the spirit we’re trying to capture here and to start a conversation that I know will continue to endure.

“The Office of the Vice-President, International is very committed to this both in terms of our local as well as global engagement. One of the things that we hope to come out of this are opportunities for us to continue to build and engage our global partners.”

Wong added that the university would closely examine the suggestions and ideas that arose from the 17 Zoom Rooms event, and that they will inform the next steps in developing a broader institutional strategic initiative focussed on SDGs.

In the meantime, Edwards, whose room tackled “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions,” says the discussions have been vital in helping him build bridges between his Ontario-based research and the global challenges that the SDGs set out to solve.

He says the sessions have inspired him to “think strategically and align my research to aim to mitigate or eliminate these global issues – particularly regarding peace, justice and strong institutions – and really [think] about how my research in Ontario can connect the dots to support global initiatives in equity.”

Students and faculty who are interested in contributing to the development of an institutional strategic initiative focussed on the SDGs are encouraged to apply to sit on one of two committees – a steering committee and a student advisory committee – that will be developing a framework over the coming months.

Goal-oriented: How sport can make the world a better place

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 23 May 2017 19:25:54 +0000

Goal-oriented: How sport can make the world a better place

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/23/2017 - 15:25

Cutline

A friendly volleyball match was held in Juba, South Sudan to celebrate last year's International Day of Sports for Development and Peace (photo by United Nations Mission in South Sudan via Flickr)

Jelena Damjanovic

Author legacy

Jelena Damjanovic

Topic

Global Lens

Sport

Sustainable Development

Subheadline

U of T symposium to bring together researchers to discuss the role sport in promoting sustainable global development

The ��Ƶ's Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education is bringing together scholars from a diverse range of disciplines for a symposium called Sport and sustainable development: setting a research agenda.

The June 8 event will focus on the ability of sport to address social issues from poverty and illiteracy to health care, particularly in marginalized communities. David Miller, president and CEO of WWF-Canada and former mayor of Toronto, will deliver the keynote address.

Writer Jelena Damjanovic spoke to KPE Assistant Professor Simon Darnell about the growing research field.

Why is sport such a promising tool for development?

I think sport represents a novel approach to the ongoing challenges of development inequalities. The record of success of international development over the past 50 years is not particularly good, at least not in terms of making the world more fair and equitable. So in that sense, sport may offer a method or framework in which to approach development differently. On top of that, sport is generally seen as a fun and engaging activity that has both wide appeal and a range of benefits, from physical fitness to socialization.

What kind of positive outcome can sport for development produce at community and national levels?

The outcomes vary, and we should be honest in recognizing that not everyone derives positive outcomes from sport participation or from sport-for-development programs. But in the field of sport for development, the most promising results have been as follows: individuals may learn healthy practices via sport that make it more likely that they will, for example, practice safe sex or reproductive health; community members can become more familiar with each other through sport, which can be very important in post-conflict situations or contexts of ethnic or political violence; and, on an international scale, sport for development (particularly when led by high profile organizations or celebrities) might draw more attention to the importance of development and the plight of those who suffer.

How can sport affect the environment specifically?

Specifically in relation to the environment, what is promising is the recognition that sport has had a rather poor environmental track record to date, and that things need to improve. So, for example, sustainability is now an important element of any city’s bid to host a sports mega-event like the Olympic Games. This doesn’t mean that environmental promises are always met, but the issue of the environment is more important than ever within sport. In turn, if high-profile, global sport organizations like the International Olympic Committee take environmental issues seriously, this can help to continue to make the case that things need to change in response to the threat posed by climate change.

How does sport connect with marginalized people in a way that government policies do not?

One thing I’ve found in my fieldwork is that people living in sustained or generational poverty and/or violence are often skeptical of the government and don’t trust the ability or willingness of their elected officials to make a positive contribution to their lives. In the midst of this mistrust and various policy failures, civil society organizations have become important leaders in the field of sport for development. It is within this context, I would say, that sport has really taken more of a hold within the field of international development.

What evidence is there of long-term impact of sport for development initiatives?

The long term benefits of these programs are hard to measure, for a number of reasons. So we certainly could use more data that helps us to understand the answers to such questions. But I would say that the best long-term impact is that many young people who come up through sport-for-development initiatives eventually become program leaders and officials themselves. This ‘train the trainers’ approach - or cascading model - has proven effective in the field of sport for development for supporting the sustainability of such programs.

U of T students heading to the UN

ullahnor — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 19:48:33 +0000

U of T students heading to the UN

ullahnor Thu, 01/26/2017 - 14:48

Cutline

Eashan Karnik leads the group. He completed a bachelor's degree in psychology and anthropology last year and is currently taking courses in environmental leadership and public policy

Sharon Aschaiek

Author legacy

Sharon Aschaiek

Topic

Sustainable Development

As the United Nations strives to build a more equitable, peaceful and ecofriendly world, it can count on help from some new allies: 14 determined, forward-thinking students from U of T.

Next month, the students from U of T Mississauga will share their input on some of the world’s most pressing problems at the UN’s 2017 Winter Youth Assembly.

The biannual event connects young adults from across the globe so they can learn about international development issues, share their social change-making success strategies and gain knowledge and resources to improve their local communities. Taking place from Feb. 1 to 3 in New York City, the 19th assembly will explore multifaceted global issues such as poverty, education and sustainable consumption.

The members of the student delegation come from a range of program areas, including environmental studies, mathematics and economics. Leading the group is Eashan Karnik, an accomplished environmentalist who last year completed a bachelor's degree in psychology and anthropology, and who is currently taking courses in environmental leadership and public policy.

“We’re looking forward to learning about how different communities are achieving sustainability and sharing our own experiences of how we have achieved similar goals,” Karnik says.

Protecting the planet is a priority that was instilled in Karnik at a young age. Growing up, his family excursions included planting trees and cleaning up polluted rivers. He later pursued similar earth-friendly initiatives through his high school’s community environment team. That tradition continued when he started at U of T Mississauga where he was an assistant at the school’s greenhouse and the sustainability coordinator for the student union. Off campus, he has served since April 2016 as a student member of Mississauga’s environmental action committee.

“Working in the environment has long been a passion for me,” Karnik says. “Climate change is a universal problem so that’s why an assembly like this is important – it allows people from around the world to tackle this common issue.”

At the UN Youth Assembly, Karnik and his team will be among 1,000 youths participating in interactive workshops led by distinguished experts from within the UN and other notable intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

The topics will include ensuring global access to quality education, promoting responsible production and consumption practices, breaking the cycle of poverty, addressing global warming, improving youth employment outcomes, and exploring solutions such as social ventures and microfinancing.

Throughout the event, the students will focus on addressing these complex social, economic and environmental issues through the lens of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals. Their resulting insights and ideas will lead to the development of a Youth Plan of Action that will help realize the UN’s vision to significantly transform the world for the better by 2030.

Karnik, whose career goal is to work as an environmental lawyer for the federal government, credits U of T Mississauga for providing a fertile training ground to study and practice environmentalism.

“I’ve learned a lot about the holistic nature of environmental issues, and how they are interconnected globally,” he says. “U of T Mississauga focuses a lot on sustainability, and I’ve been able to bring in all sorts of green projects. It’s nice to see these issues being talked about and acted on at the university.”