Europe as the first striker in the team for sustainable development. The first part of the conversation with Professor Enrico Giovannini, founder and spokesperson of Asvis.
Through its main protagonist, Professor Enrico Giovannini, we present an overview of the activities carried out by Asvis, the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, with particular attention to the perspective of individual citizens and third-sector organisations. In doing so, we discover that Asvis works for sustainable development and the circular economy, and that it received a fundamental boost from the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Giovannini is an economist and statistician who, over the course of his career, worked at Istat (the National Institute of Statistics, first as a researcher and then as director of the department for economic statistics), before taking on the role of chief statistician at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) from 2001 to 2009, where he also launched the movement to move beyond GDP as a measure of societal wellbeing. In 2009 he returned to Italy to serve as president of Istat; in 2013 he was appointed Minister of Labour and Social Policies in the Letta government, a post he held until February 2014, when he returned to academia (he has been a professor at the University of Tor Vergata since 2002). After leading an expert panel on the so-called "data revolution" for sustainable development at the request of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, from September 2015 he began exploring the possibility of launching Asvis, of which he is spokesperson; the alliance was officially established in February 2016.
Let's start with Asvis itself. What is it and what objectives does it set itself?
Fundamentally, the objectives are four. First: to mobilise Italian public opinion to take the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development seriously as an overall frame of reference for the future. It is therefore an advocacy initiative. The second aim is to work on education for sustainable development, because only with a new generation — of people, managers, politicians, journalists — will we be able to understand the complexity of the Agenda and implement it in accordance with United Nations principles. The third objective is to make all of this concrete. And how is that done? Through research, analysis, and the identification of possible solutions and policies that can put Italy — and not only Italy — on the path to sustainability. Since there are many good practices, the fourth aim of Asvis is to share them, in the hope that others will adopt and improve upon them. To summarise, advocacy, education, policy and best practice are the four aims of the Alliance.
Let's put ourselves in the reader's shoes. What can they do and what can they expect? Why should they mobilise in support of sustainable development?
First of all, let's say that Asvis is a unique undertaking. We have not found anything similar either in Italy or abroad. Its strength lies in having managed, in just a year and a half, to attract 175 organisations of varying kinds to this topic, all united with the aim of contributing to the 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda has a universal character, which means it applies to all countries and that the commitment concerns everyone: from the public sector to producers, consumers, citizens and politicians. And that is precisely why we have managed to draw into our network very different actors who, until now, have not worked in a synergistic way — but sometimes, and I would like to emphasise this, have even worked in a somewhat competitive manner. Within Asvis there are the WWF, Legambiente and Italia Nostra; there are trade unions and Confindustria; there are associations of financial, insurance and banking companies. The representation is complete. This is a unique achievement — not an easy one, but an extremely significant one.
We operate through working groups, formed and led by members on a voluntary basis, which are organised both around the 17 SDGs and around cross-cutting activities such as education for sustainable development, indicators, modelling to assess policy impacts, and advocacy. In addition to the annual contribution due from each participant, there is the possibility of funding specific projects. There is also a secretariat coordinated by me, made up of paid staff alongside many volunteers who help the working groups to function and manage the website and newsletter. They were the "engine" of the Festival for Sustainable Development, in which a wide variety of actors organised no fewer than 221 events across Italy. We are a network, so we have an assembly in which each member has an equal say; many initiatives arise from the grassroots.
A small miracle, one might say…
A small miracle, certainly — especially considering the speed at which we launched this initiative — but one that testifies to the energy and desire to work on these issues that exist across the country. In a sense, perhaps we have brought a new Italy to the surface.
Is there something specific that citizens can do right away?
Let's think about the many initiatives that engage citizens in providing services for local communities. We have volunteering and active citizenship associations, which have been carrying out activities useful to the economy and society well before the adoption of the SDGs. In the SDGs, and in Asvis, they have found not only a space but also a holistic approach that has helped them forge new collaborations. This is the great strength of our network.
Also because the volume of documents and actions is such that it is not easy to find one's bearings and stay up to date…
That is precisely the problem. The 2030 Agenda is vast and complex and, at national and international level, an enormous amount of material is produced. So the first very concrete function of Asvis is to select and disseminate these studies. Navigating this ocean of information, as we know all too well, is a major challenge: those who want to stay informed will find a valuable tool in our website and newsletter.
The second element, very concrete: education for sustainable development. From September onwards, all teachers in Italian schools will have access to our e-learning course on the SDGs. On 28 July we held a press conference with Minister Fedeli to present our plan to align all the policies of the MIUR (the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research) with the Sustainable Development Goals. The 830 million euros allocated by the ministry to the so-called PON Istruzione (National Operational Programme for Education), funded by European Union resources, are all directed towards Goal 4, which concerns quality education.
So from September it will be possible to go online and start learning
Yes, because the course will be hosted on the 'Indire' platform, where the ministry makes training materials available to teachers. This year we organised the first Miur-Asvis competition on sustainable development, which received almost 300 entries. The second competition will launch in October and we expect a significantly higher number of participants.
Read also the second part of the interview
And for those who are a bit further along in their years and education, such as students and managers?
We helped get the Network of Universities for Sustainable Development (Rus) off the ground, created by the Conference of Rectors of Italian universities. This initiative pushes universities not only to apply best practices to themselves in terms of waste management, energy efficiency and sustainable mobility, but also to orient teaching, research and the so-called third mission — the relationship between universities and their local communities — towards sustainable development. The first public event of the Rus, on 10 July in Venice, placed the topic of education for sustainable development at its centre. We discovered, for example, that the University of Parma is developing a zero-lecture for all its students, and the idea is to do the same across Italy. This means that all students will know what the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs are; this is an important element because it helps to place one's own activity within a broader effort. We also plan to open a dialogue with business schools to understand how much sustainable development is taught in their courses. If it were not, we would run the risk of training new managers in the old model, only to discover, once they are hired by a company, that sustainability is increasingly at the heart of business strategies.
Will there also be a new language for communicating systemic relationships and sustainability?
This is one of the greatest obstacles we are encountering. If I talk to anyone about sustainable development, I can sense it instinctively — the immediate reaction is: "Okay, we're talking about the environment." Even in newspapers, even when the topic is perhaps poverty, it always ends up under the "environment" heading. This is a dramatic problem that we will address from September onwards through courses for journalists, such as the first master's degree in Journalism for Sustainable Development, which will launch — with our contribution — at the University of Bologna. At the same time, we are thinking about professional development initiatives.
Communicating the complexity of the Agenda is an enormous challenge, especially in a world where the tendency is, on the contrary, to simplify everything into 140 characters. How to do it? Some of our members have specific expertise on these topics and will help us communicate the Asvis report, due out at the end of September, and the campaign we plan to launch ahead of next year's general election. Of course, then you go to Morocco, as happened to me recently, and among the advertising screens you also find ones explaining the SDGs; we will also talk about this with those who manage airports and railways. Because, precisely, it is Italy that has made the commitment, not a single government or a single party.
There is also a recent European Community document that was submitted to public consultation
In some respects, Europe has been the champion of sustainable development and we should be proud of it. Moreover, Article 3 of the Treaty contains the term "sustainable development" and, following this lead, one of Asvis's first proposals was to insert it into our Constitution as well, as France, Switzerland, Egypt and other countries have done.
Why?
Because this concept is a safeguard for future generations against unsustainable policies. It must be acknowledged that Europe is well ahead in terms of environmental protections and social market economy, so much so that it played a fundamental role in various negotiations, first and foremost those for the Paris Agreement (which, it should be noted, forms part of the SDGs).
In November 2016, the European Commission published a communication on how to incorporate the SDGs into European policies. It was a somewhat controversial communication because, while on the one hand it recalls the many things already being done in this area, on the other it does not clearly indicate the intention to move to a different paradigm, underestimating, for example, the role of businesses. In the months that followed, the European Council worked on it, and the document approved in June urges the Commission to be far bolder and more precise, setting the first half of 2018 as the deadline by which to define the plan for incorporating the SDGs into Europe's long-term programming. This positive signal is important, but it must also be acknowledged that many policies fall within national competence.
Yet Asvis, together with Sdgs Watch, has proposed a "sixth scenario" for the future of Europe
Exactly. This sixth scenario was the fruit of the meeting we organised in Rome in March 2017 on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, and it is a vision that places sustainable development at the centre of Europe's future. We are completing it with Sdgs Watch and plan to submit it to the Commission by the end of August, also in advance of the State of the Union address that President Juncker is due to give on 13 September.
