We gladly publish the letter from Prof. Enrico Giovannini, spokesperson for Asvis – Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, with the results of the Sustainable Development Festival which has just ended.
Double participation of our association, which contributed to the achievement of the positive result both with a large group of members at the various working tables, and with the #scopriamolecarte event, which was included among those of the Festival.
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Dear friends and dear friends,
the first Italian Festival of sustainable development ended on 7 June with a top-level event attended by, among others, the President of the Republic, the President of the Chamber of Deputies and the President of the Council of Ministers. In particular, I received extremely positive feedback from President Mattarella's staff, while President Gentiloni, announcing the contents of the forthcoming Sustainable Development Strategy, accepted many of the proposals put forward by the Alliance regarding the governance of the Strategy, before it is all under the direction of the Prime Minister on such a transversal and relevant issue for the future of the country. At the same time, during the debate, the President of the Conference of Regions Bonaccini confirmed the intention of the Conference to join ASviS and the President of the Council of ANCI Bianco proposed to mobilize all Italian municipalities in the coming months on the issue of development sustainable through coordinated action.
The following day, the mayors of the metropolitan cities signed the "Bologna Charter" created with the contribution of ASviS, which outlines a roadmap with very concrete commitments on sustainable development issues for our cities, perfectly in line with the Draft of "Sustainable Urban Agenda" prepared by the ASviS group coordinated by Urban@it. The "Charter of Bologna" joins the commitments signed, during other events organized within the Festival, by entrepreneurial and financial organizations during the course and the manifesto for "sustainable consumerism" prepared by the Consumer's Forum with reference to the associations of the distribution and consumers.
It would be enough to mention these very important results to argue that the Festival has been a very effective tool for mobilizing society and the institutions of our country on the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, but this would not do justice to the richness of the Festival. The 221 events organized in 17 days throughout the country, with 2,300 speakers and tens of thousands of participants, represent the undisputed testimony of how the Festival has been an extraordinary success. Beyond the massive presence on traditional media, especially on local and online media, social media have represented an effective communication channel, also thanks to the commitment of many members to disseminate information regarding the Festival. In particular:
- Updates and news regarding all aspects of the 221 events of the Festival were disseminated through the website dedicated to the Festival. It was possible to follow the three main events organized by the Secretariat in live streaming, to download multimedia materials (ebooks, podcasts, testimonial videos, photo galleries) and listen to audio interviews with the main protagonists of sustainability in Italy and beyond. Individual users who have visited the site have been over 46,000;
- approximately 800,000 people were reached through social media. In the days of the events managed by the Secretariat, the Festival has always been a "trending topic" on Twitter, that is one of the most conveyed messages. The number of ASviS followers has more than doubled on both Twitter and Facebook.
But beyond the communicative aspects, the Festival has created an unparalleled community of people and institutions, encouraging collaborations between subjects who had not had previous experience of working together. Just think of the links established in the area between universities and members of the Alliance, or cases such as the one in Parma, where almost thirty events took place in 17 days.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without your enthusiasm and commitment. Just as it would not have been possible to carry out the enormous amount of work involved in organizing the Festival without the commitment and dedication of the members of the Secretariat. Our thanks go to all.
All together we did what many consider "a miracle". But the success of the Festival confirms the accuracy of the reading of the state of Italian society which led to the birth of the Alliance, i.e. that civil society and the country's economic and social forces are ready to accept the challenge of building, despite the difficulties , a more equitable and sustainable future.
Cordial greetings
Prof. Enrico Giovannini
Spokesperson of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development
The first Italian festival of sustainable development took place from 22 May to 7 June 2017, with more than 221 events organized throughout Italy. For information see www.festivalsvilupposostenibile.it
