The United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC), through its Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development, and simpleshow foundation are pleased to announce the winners of the SD explainer video contest.

Launched in 2017, the UNSSC and simpleshow foundation’s Volunteer Initiative allows individuals and organisations to create videos to promote action and awareness around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Anyone can register online to be part of the Volunteer Initiative, which enables free access to a premium version of the video creation tool, mysimpleshow.

The SD explainer video contest gave participants the platform to create videos on any aspect of the  2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with the chance of winning a seat in UNSSC’s September 2018 edition of the Foundational Course on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as customised simpleshow foundation ‘scribble packages’ for their next projects for the Volunteer Initiative.

Prizes have been awarded to Jairo Eduardo Pinzón from Columbia, Vera Vrijburg from the Netherlands, and Rashida Atthar from India. Congratulations to all three winners for successfully sharing their own unique messages on sustainable development!

Jairo Eduardo Pinzón provided substantive information on how the protection of forests ultimately affects the success of many of the Sustainable Development Goals. On the contest, Mr. Pinzón stated,

“Through the Volunteer Initiative, it has been possible for people from all over the world, and in a simple way, to share visions and experiences regarding sustainable development and especially the challenges that exist around the 2030 Agenda. It is gratifying to feel that I can somehow contribute to building a better planet for present and future generations”.

You can find Mr. Pinzón’s explainer video here.

Vera Vrijburg illustrated an interesting example of local implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in her own community, Langedijk, Netherlands.

About the contest Vera underlined that it “will support me further to improve my impact on the global goals #SDGS, both in my local community of Langedijk as well as anywhere else in the world where the Global Goals need to be implemented and lived! Creating the simpleshow video made it clear how to focus on and express our project”.

You can find Ms. Vrijburg’s explainer video here.

Similarly, Rashida Atthar gave a thought-provoking explanation on the effects of climate change in her own city, Mumbai, India.

On the Volunteer Initiative, Ms. Atthar remarked that “It’s a very effective and concise medium of imparting education and knowledge of various SDGs and its indicators, and also easy to master and create. I wanted to create a video on SDG 13 Climate Action in a way that ages 12 onwards would understand and be motivated for action, and this was possible in a short time duration using mysimpleshow software.”

You can find Ms. Atthar’s explainer video here.

We would also like to thank all of those who participated in the contest. All submitted videos gave great depictions of sustainable development and many of the videos will be featured on the simpleshow foundation’s youtube channel.  Congratulations to all!  

Contact information

UNSSC Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development: Jennifer Cotesustainable-development@unssc.org, +49 (0) 228 815 2685, Haus Carstanjen, Martin-Luther-King-Str.8, 53175 Bonn, Germany

simpleshow foundation: Susanne Ilemann, info@simpleshow-foundation.org, 4040 NE 2nd Avenue, STE 312, Miami, FL 33137, United States

More information:

UNSSC-simpleshow foundation Partnership
United Nations System Staff College
UNSSC Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development