This was the opening speech at the Geneva Global Goals Innovation Day, co-written and delivered by the two co-presidents of the G3iD association, Vivian Marcelino and Paul Bristow. The Geneva Global Goals Innovation Day was held on March 24th, 2017
When the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as Global Goals, were launched by the United Nations back at the end of 2015, the UN called upon people everywhere to take action. A loosely coupled bunch of innovators here in Geneva heard that call and decided to do something about it.
This group – us – from some of the faster moving UN institutions, social impact hubs and new fablabs – thought that through innovation we could help International Geneva to become more effective: To do more, and achieve more, with less but together.
During our co-creation sessions we found our dream: To transform Geneva into the “Silicon Valley of Sustainable & Humanitarian Development”,solving real problems, generating real social impact, and helping achieve the SDGs.
Because when you look at Geneva, it is unique in the world. Here, we have the international organisations and NGOs, we have the private sector, from start-ups to sector leaders, we have investors and we have the innovation ecosystem. Moreover, we have a multinational & multidisciplinary richness of cultures like almost nowhere else in the world.
The SDGs are different from the millennium development goals – they apply to every country – to every person. So why not treat the SDGs as a set of targets for Geneva. We could become an example for the world. And if not here, where?
The Geneva Global Goals Innovation Day (G3iD) is intended as a catalyst to get started. We understand that innovation is not just about technology. It is about new ways of doing things. Today, we bring together the multiple actors of the local and international Geneva to explore innovative solutions and new ways of working together towards the global goals.
To foster collaboration between us all, our first theme for the day is co-creation; the art of making better solutions by getting multidisciplinary teams to work together.
We know that this is a great way to achieve our second theme for today, acceleration. We started by asking ourselves what would happen if we tried to speed up – for example trying to achieve the SDGs by 2020. We lived this for ourselves In the G3iD project. With a team of volunteers, starting with only 150 francs, we made all this happen in 8 months, so we know that this can be done.
Our third theme is scaling. We’ve started in Geneva but we are talking about the global goals. So as you go around and look at the more than one hundred solutions here today, think about how you can help them scale up to generate the global impact needed to achieve the SDGs.
We think that if we pull together, we can treat these 17 goals as a set of tick boxes. Let’s get these out the way, and then by 2030 we will need to co-create new goals – perhaps around Space Exploration, Artificial Intelligence, & Cyborg Rights, because these 17 goals about making our world a better place for all will be done.
But, even we’re not crazy enough to think we can achieve the SDGs in one day, so we would also like to start co-creating with you the the future of our SDG innovation ecosystem here in Geneva. All of us are actors of change and together we can achieve so much more. Each and every one of us should be an SDG innovator.
We thank you for joining us here today! Moreover, we thank those without whom G3iD would be nothing but a crazy idea. In every new movement, we need leaders. But we also need supporters. So we would like to thank the organizations who have helped to make G3iD a reality.
Our trailblazer supporters: The International Trade Centre, Impact Hub Geneva, THE Port Association, Pangloss Labs, Aprés-Genève and the Global Humanitarian Lab.
And our sponsors: the Barrett Values Centre, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ville de Geneve and the Canton de Geneve, and the Confederation Suisse. We also thank the more than 100 organizations here today co-creating the first ever Geneva Global Goals Innovation Day, and all of you have have accepted our invitation to be an innovator for a day.
Thank you!