Two major events recently occurred at the United Nations Headquarters: the High Level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the High-Level Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement.
From Tuesday 19th to Friday 22nd of April, the UN SDG Action Campaign interviewed guests about their priorities and perceived challenges in the SDGs in the Digital Media Zone (DMZ). We shared our work on MY World 2030, The World We Want and Virtual Reality and conducted interviews and social media moments. The DMZ is a designated space hosted in parallel to High Level Meetings at the United Nations, such as the Signing Ceremony for Paris Agreement, which designates a “live social media newsroom” where journalists, bloggers, celebrities and media influencers can join the conversation, generate discussion and engage the global online audience.
During these few days, the UN SDG Action Campaign emphasized the importance of empowering and inspiring people across the world to take action in supporting their governments with the implementation of the SDGs. The Campaign invited delegates to be some of the first participants to vote in MY World 2030.
The UN SDG Action Campaign also showed the power of new technologies and storytelling in bringing the experience of vulnerable communities to decision makers and global society. Clouds Over Sidra and Waves of Grace are two films in the United Nations Virtual Reality Series which help create deeper empathy and understanding. Although these have been screened at the UN many times, there are always new people who have yet to have the experience.
- “The VR experience was just unbelievable. This is truly incredible”
- “It was very touching. I almost cry looking at the images. To see into the eyes of someone living in a refugee camp is really touchy and give you an other sense of what is happening there”.
