• SDGs

Partnerships for a Sustainable Future: The Government of Rio de Janeiro and UN-Habitat Join Forces in the SDG Challenge

As the world moves closer to the crucial 2030 deadline for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the state of Rio de Janeiro is taking bold, decisive action to ensure that its future is not only sustainable but inclusive for all its citizens. In a transformative partnership with UN-Habitat, The Rio de Janeiro state has launched the Inclusive and Sustainable Rio Project in partnership with UN-Habitat. This initiative aims to localize the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), empowering municipalities to create innovative solutions for sustainable development.

At the heart of this initiative lies the SDG Challenge, a dynamic platform that seeks to strengthen local policies, enhance municipal capacity, and drive resilience. The SDG Challenge is more than just a challenge – it’s a movement to empower local governments, improve policies, and build the capacity of municipalities to integrate SDGs and resilience-oriented targets into their daily operations.

A Crucial Moment for Rio and the World: The 2024 G20 Summit

In 2024, Brazil will take the global stage as it hosts the G20 Summit, bringing together the leaders of the world’s largest economies to tackle the most urgent global issues. Rio de Janeiro, in particular, will be at the center of this historic moment, hosting many of the G20 meetings throughout the year, including the highly anticipated summit itself. This places Rio in a unique position – not only as a host city but as a model for sustainable urban development.

What’s especially significant is that the G20 has already woven the SDGs into its core agenda, recognizing that sustainable development is essential to global prosperity. The 2024 edition of the SDG Challenge aligns perfectly with this global focus, offering a special prize known as SDG20, which will highlight projects that bring the G20’s sustainability commitments to life at the local level.

The 2024 edition of the Challenge will offer a special SDG20 prize, focusing on projects that align with the G20’s sustainability commitments, including clean water (SDG 6), sustainable cities (SDG 11), climate action (SDG 13), and life below water (SDG 14).

The Three Pillars of the SDG Challenge:

The SDG Challenge unfolds in three phases, each designed to drive real, actionable change at the local level:

1. SDG Challenge Journey: This phase kicks off with a series of face-to-face workshops, where government officials and technical experts from Rio’s 92 municipalities come together to learn, collaborate, and strategize on the 2030 Agenda, the New Urban Agenda, and other essential UN-Habitat tools and methodologies. The goal is simple but powerful: to ensure that every municipality has the knowledge and resources they need to implement the SDGs.
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2. Virtual Laboratory: In the second phase, the SDG Challenge goes digital. Through a series of online meetings, participants share experiences, exchange best practices, and refine their local initiatives. This virtual forum also serves as a platform for municipalities to submit their projects to the Bank of Good Practices, a growing collection of successful, scalable solutions that can be adapted and implemented across the state
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3. Good Practices Competition: acontest rewarding the best projects, which will be featured in the Good Practices Database, becoming a valuable resource for other municipalities looking to make a difference.

A Shared Vision for a Sustainable Future

The Inclusive and Sustainable Rio Project is more than a partnership between the government of Rio de Janeiro and UN-Habitat –  it’s a blueprint for how local and global collaboration can drive meaningful change. Through the SDG Challenge, Rio’s municipalities are being empowered to take ownership of their futures, develop creative solutions to their most pressing problems, and build stronger, more resilient communities.

As the world’s attention turns to Rio de Janeiro in 2024 for the G20 Summit, the state is not just preparing to host a global conversation on sustainability, – it’s leading by example. With a focus on water security, climate action, sustainable urban development, and protecting life below water, Rio is showing the world that real, lasting change starts at the local level.

The partnership between the Government of Rio and UN-Habitat is a testament to the power of collaboration, creativity, and commitment. Together, they are not only shaping the future of Rio but also inspiring other regions around the world to rise to the challenge of building a more inclusive and sustainable world.

Rio’s journey is just beginning, and the future looks bright.