Expressions of Interest sought for participants of the 2024-2025 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Champions Programme

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is seeking Expressions of Interest for participants of the 2024-2025 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Champions Programme.

Established in 2019, the SDG Champions Programme is a non-funded programme, developed to raise public awareness of the SDGs and to demonstrate, through best practice examples provided by the SDG Champions, that everyone in society can make a contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Under the Programme, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications will appoint several organisations as SDG Champions for a period of 12 months, from May 2024. The organisations will be selected from a wide range of sectors of Irish society, representing the commitment to sustainable development across the public, private, community, voluntary, youth and NGO sectors. Applications will be accepted from organisations/groups based in the Republic of Ireland. This can include cross-border, multi-national organisations with Irish operations.

Role

• Advocate and promoter of the SDGs and sustainable development
• Acts as a good practice example of how an organisation or group can contribute to the SDGs and integrate the SDGs into their work or activities
• Shares learnings with others

Responsibilities

• Ongoing promotion of and linking of work to the SDGs
• Quarterly updates on related work and activities
• Organisation of an SDG-related or promotional event during the lifetime of being an SDG Champion (ideally to take place during SDG week – September 2024)
• Contribution at end-of-term showcasing event

Role of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications

The Department will provide support to the Champions in promoting the SDGs through:

• Organisation of an introductory workshop, quarterly meetings, end-of-term showcase and other SDG-related events
• Providing Champions with an information pack, including guidance on the Programme, quarterly reporting templates and brand assets for promoting the SDGs
• Inclusion of information and activities relating to Champions’ initiatives on Ireland’s SDG Geohive
• Access to SDG mapping tool for Champions to map projects and activities to the SDGs

• Applications will be accepted in written or video format
• Please limit applications to no more than 600-700 words or no longer than a 4-to-5-minute video
• Please use clear and concise language
• When providing examples of how your activities or work contribute to the SDGs, you can also refer to individual SDGs and targets – these can be found on gov.ie or on the UN website.
• Please feel free to include relevant links to support your examples of your work and promotion of the SDGs
• To ensure a broad representation of sectors of society, applications will be drawn from a wide range of sectoral areas. Please also include in your application, which category your organisation / group falls into:

o Business – large (250 employees or more)

o Business – Small medium and other (less than 250 employees)

o Education

o Local authority and state agency

o Tidy towns and community group

o NGO /charity / social enterprise

o Tourism, sport and media

o Youth

o Other (Please specify/give a brief description)

If your organisation or group is interested in applying to become an SDG Champion, please answer the following questions in your application. (Total 50 marks)

1. Why is your organisation/group interested in becoming an SDG Champion? (10 marks)

2. How does the work of your organisation/group contribute to the SDGs? (Please provide examples of activities or work that your organization/group does or has done, which helps to achieve the SDGs) (20 marks)

3. If you were selected as an SDG Champion, how would you intend to:

i. promote and raise awareness of the SDGs (10 marks)

and

ii. embed the SDGs into the work of your organisation? (10 marks)

Please send your application to SDGs@decc.gov.ie and include your preferred contact details.

All Expressions of Interest must be received by the extended deadline of 5pm Monday, 8 April

If you would like a Word version of this document, please contact SDGs@decc.gov.ie