Austria's Commitment to the 2030 Agenda

ACTIVE ON NATIONAL LEVEL
DIALOGUE WITH CIVIL SOCIETY
ACCELERATING SDG
IMPLEMENTATION
The online event “Accelerating Action for the SDGs in Austria”
on 12th November 2020 addressed the current status and
plans for implementing the 2030 Agenda in Austria. Political
decision-makers and experts in the field discussed novel ideas
to increase the pace with regard to the SDG implementation.
At the event organised by the Austrian
Federal Chancellery (BKA) and the Ban
Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens
(BKMC), Karoline Edtstadler, Austrian
Federal Minister for the EU and Constitution,
underlined the importance of accelerating
the implementation of the 2030
Agenda in the next ten years in front of
more than 2,300 participants. Statistics
Austria expert Alexandra Wegscheider-
Pichler took stock of the impact of the
COVID 19 pandemic on SDG implementation:
the negative effects on health, the
economy, education, gender equality and
the environment were in any case offset by
improved public attitudes towards sustainably
produced food and products.
Ideas for acceleration
The question of how the accelerated implementation
of the SDGs should be continued
despite COVID-19, was discussed during
a panel discussion attended by top level
participants. One suggestion in this regard
was the introduction of competitions for
municipalities, companies and schools.
This would support the broad impact of
and motivation for the implementation,
said Antonella Mei-Pochtler (Think Austria,
Former BKA Strategy Staff Office from 2018-
2022). Expert Christian Kroll (Bertelsmann
Stiftung) advocated for the creation of
incentives for mutual learning on the
European level, since a lot of European
countries had similar weak points in the
implementation of individual SDGs.
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