Social Rights, Culture, Education and Cycles of Life

The launch of the awards seeks to recognise good practice in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) in the business and social sectors, communications, education and the city.

The first Barcelona 2030 Agenda Awards are now here. The submission period for entries opened on 25 April and is open to anybody interested in submitting an entry for the awards. The awards are intended to recognise and promote innovative and inspirational initiatives which help to achieve the SDGS in the city of Barcelona and will be given at the end of September.

Besides recognising the most outstanding actions, the aim of the awards is to create an annual space to meet, reflect and mutually recognise work carried out in the community, in the political sphere, in business and academic and social spheres to help reach the goals of the 2030 Agenda. This way, the awards will offer a yearly opportunity to share information. 

Rules

Entries can be submitted during the 35 working days following the publication of the call in the Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona, which was on 25 April. The call is open to all natural and legal persons based in Barcelona or its metropolitan area (except for the City award, which is open to councils all over the world in municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants).

Projects carried out in the two years prior to the publication of the call may apply, as well as projects still in progress which have had some sort of impact. The awards ceremony will be held at the end of the Second Meeting on the 2030 Agenda in Barcelona, on 30 September.

Five categories, ten types of awards

The Barcelona 2030 Agenda Awards consists of ten types, grouped into five categories: business initiatives, social initiatives, media, education projects and cities. 

The category for business initiatives offers the option of three types of award: one for the contribution made by an SME towards achieving the SDGs, one for the contribution from a large company and another for the best SDG awareness campaign run by a company. In terms of social initiatives, awards will be given for the best contribution towards the SDGs by a non-profit organisation or a citizen initiative, and for the best campaign run by these.

In the media category, awards will be given for the best news coverage relating to the SDGs and for the best journalistic report on this same topic. The category for education projects includes two awards, one for the best contribution towards the SDGs by a primary school and another for the best contribution by a secondary school. Finally, the cities category consists of an award for the best practice by a municipality in achieving the SDGs.

Barcelona at the forefront in applying the 2030 Agenda

The Third Deputy Mayor, Laia Bonet, believes that the awards will help position Barcelona internationally “as a role model for the work of cities to achieve the SDGs”, and that Barcelona could be a leading city in the application of the 2030 Agenda “and serve as a loudhailer for inspirational initiatives for other cities around the world”.

Similarly, Bonet noted that the 2030 Agenda is a call for joint work to achieve the economic, social and environmental sustainability goals among administrations, organisations and the general public. The Third Deputy Mayor described the awards as an opportunity to “recognise innovative solutions and initiatives which have a positive impact for the SDGs and which help recognise the good work done by anybody wishing to put forward a project”.