Right after the presentation of the Sustainable Development Goals as a global agenda, the regional government of Sao Paulo, in Brazil, created an Inter-Secretarial Work Group to implement them. The group is particularly focused on 5 main pillars: (1) development accordingly to global goals and standards, (2) fostering of the joint work among secretariats, (3) resources optimization after avoiding the duplication of projects due to information fluxes, (4) development of a direct relationship between sustainable development and citizen’s life quality, and (5) creation of knowledge-sharing networks with other regions, countries and international organizations.

In this sense, a workshop oriented to the members of the group and was held on July 2016 to discuss, present and plan the implementation of the Agenda 2030. During this event, the need for action to foster sustainable development was raised, and therefore the commitment and involvement of all the Secretariats was remarked. The workshop started with a presentation of the SDGs, and the transition from MDGs, an agenda which Sao Paulo as a region implemented very effectively, compelling 7 out of 8 goals.

Throughout the workshop, the participants got to look for multidimensional solutions to economic, social or environmental problems within interdisciplinary teams. As well, they studied some of the government programmes within the SDGs perspective and realized that the programmes are often related to more than one SDG and belong to more than one Secretariat’s scope.

Another important output of the workshop was the presentation of the cartographic and geographical systematization of the data, from which the participants learned about the territorial approach and how it can facilitate the implementation of the SDGs. They noted it is necessary to map the existing government systems to create indicators that may enable them to measure the SDGs accomplishment for the following years.

To know more about the workshop (in Portuguese), visit:

http://www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/spnoticias/ultimas-noticias/governo-de-sao-paulo-reune-secretarias-com-foco-nos-objetivos-sustentaveis/
https://www.emplasa.sp.gov.br/Comunicacao/NaImprensa/Imprensa/Workshop-sobre-Objetivos-de-Desenvolvimento-Sustentavel-acontece-amanha-no-Centro-Paula-So

[Photo: Governo de Sao Paulo]