PVBLIC Foundation held a preliminary consultation with 12 Asia-based civil society organizations in early July to expand the organization's engagement across the region.
NEW YORK, USA, JUL 14, 2021. During this event, which brought together leaders from 12 organizations and 12 different countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, State of Palestine, and Vietnam, PVBLIC Foundation presented its core programs and heard from participants who shared their regional and grass roots work to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Asia. The goal was to establish connections and begin developing opportunities for collaboration.
The following programs were discussed:
1. SDG Media Zone, which was created by PVBLIC in partnership with the United Nations Department of Global Communications. The SDG Media Zone takes the conversation on advancing the 2030 Agenda out of the policy sphere and into the public discourse. It has become a flagship UN communications program.
2. PVBLIC SQUARE: A series of monthly high-level digital conversations featuring public and private sector leaders discussing our world’s biggest challenges and opportunities, especially inequality, climate change, health, and education, among others.
3. SDG Media Summit: PVBLIC Foundation created the Media for Social Impact Summit in partnership with the United Nations Office for Partnerships in 2014. The Summit brings the media impact community together each year with the goal of engaging on the most pressing sustainability issues, activating around solutions, and celebrating projects and partnerships that are having an impact.
4. SDG Data Alliance: In Partnership with the UN Statistics Division, we are building a strategic country-led geospatial framework (SDG Data Alliance) as defined within the global context as the Integrated Geospatial Information Network -IGIF. Our current project is execution of Open SDG Data Hub in Haiti.
5. In Asia, PVBLIC Foundation has recently partnered with Kinesis, a new monetary platform, to create a people-centric public-private partnership model in Indonesia mobilizing innovative technology to address the implementation of the SDGs, particularly by providing financial access to unbanked and underbanked citizens.
6. Since the start of COVID-19, PVBLIC has been expanding its outreach and work in Asia to promote the achievement of the United Nations SDGs and advance a positive global impact on Sustainable Development in all the regions of the world.
The participating organizations, including representatives from Asia Development Alliance, Management and Sustainable Development Institute - MSD, Tarayana Foundation, Peace for People, Caucus of Development NGO Networks, Nirmanee Development Foundation, Social and Economic Policies Observatory, VOICE (Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment), Human Rights Development Center and Women for Social Progress, and Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable Development - APSD, received the information and were keen to engage.
The ideas discussed included:
1. Expansion of SDG Data Hubs in developing Asian Countries.
2. The need for global showcasing of SDG work being carried out in the Asian region.
3. Ways of deepening engagement with the PVBLIC Foundation.
4. Possibility of creating projects and applying for grants with PVBLIC Foundation.
The future agenda included a follow-up meeting to discuss the possible collaborations in detail and organizing a PVBLIC Square virtual event with Asian leaders in the fall of this year. In the meantime, outreach will continue with all the participating organizations for further discussions and exploring more partners.
