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SDSN Canada 2021 Members Meeting Recap

By Givanni Bruna

SDSN Canada reconvened the network membership on June 16th, 2021 for its annual Members Meeting.

Recap the discussion by reading the meeting notes or listening to the audio recordings for each session.

This year's meeting featured conversations on the current state of the SDGs in Canada, emerging opportunities for post-secondary institutions, networking breakout sessions, and a featured joint presentation by the Brookings Institution and Rockefeller Foundation on mobilizing campuses and communities for the SDGs using the 17 Rooms initiative.The 17 Rooms initiative is a tool for advancing SDG collaboration, community-centric conversations, and bottom-up action. There are three key principles of consideration: 1) every SDG gets a seat at the table (a dedicated room), 2) identify what the next step is, and not the perfect step. For example, what are things you can do together over the next 12 to 18 months that you can implement action on the SDGs?, and 3) it is about conversations, not presentations. The goal is to learn from each other and create a community of practice. Join the 17 Rooms-X Community of Practice to access the beta toolkit.

The meeting included a lightning round of member initiatives from Colleges and Institutes Canada, the Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Operationalization of Sustainable Development (CIRODD), Vancouver Island University, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Waterloo, to highlight a portion of the SDG work happening across the network.

The convening was also a chance to invite members into initiatives designed to be more intentional about the network’s collective presence and impact. In this vein, the network thinks that the 17 Rooms process can be a critical resource for campus conversations on the SDGs.

SDSN Canada also relaunched the Member Challenge , is starting the ‘SDG Teaching Community’ for faculty across the network, and is convening a small working group of interested members to talk about an enhanced governance structure for the network.

To learn more about SDSN Canada, visit their website. If you would like to apply for membership with SDSN Canada today, please review criteria and submit an application here.