Social Structures
Authors: Kimberly Wright, Postgraduate LLM student Global Legal Studies & Anastasia Campbell, Administrative Lead, ALL Institute
On the 20th of February, the United Nations World Day of Social Justice gives the world an opportunity to celebrate peace, social inclusion, and respect for human rights. Those values are at the core of the United Nations (UN) action, and, in particular, of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. The UN SDGs consist of a total of 17 universal goals adopted by all 193 UN member states aimed at improving and ensuring a sustainable future for all. These goals include poverty, inequality, climate change, peace and justice among various other causes for concern. The Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute’s mission is to ensure that all people around the world, particularly those who have been subject to marginalisation, achieve a good quality of life and full participation in society through the use of appropriate technologies and evidence-based policies and laws. Our research is dedicated to promoting human rights-based and person-centred systems to empower people and enhance social inclusion and involvement.
At the ALL Institute, we strive to incorporate the UN SDGs into our daily practices, policies and research projects. The SDGs consistently recognise the importance of ‘leaving no one behind’ as it endeavours to reach the most excluded and marginalised groups of society, something which is at the heart of the ALL Institute.
For the first time in 2020, Maynooth University was listed in the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, whereby the performance of Universities is assessed in conjunction with the UN SDGs. Maynooth University was ranked 1st in Ireland and 49th in the world for their work towards achieving Quality Education for all. It was placed in the top 3 per cent of Universities globally for its research on social inequalities, policies on discrimination and commitment to recruit staff and students from under-represented groups. In addition, it was ranked 2nd in Ireland and 34th globally for its progressive work for gender equality.
In order to show the ALL Institute’s continued contribution to the UN SDGs and to the profile of the Institute in this regard, we asked our ALL members to complete a survey identifying where their work aligns with the UN SDGs in 5 broad areas – education, policy, engagement, research, and funding. The questions were presented under the following headings: Development and Delivery of Education Programmes, Policy Development, Partnering with NGO’s, Research and Funding.
The following information has been gathered by from the results of the survey respondents but does not include all of the projects and publications participated by the ALL Institute members.
*Respondents name multiple projects/NGOs/funding as they apply to specific goals.
As is evident form Figure 1. the ALL Institute through its members have contributed across all 17 of the UN SDG goals. Most Goals have multiple project contributors and various collaborators from Civil Society and Private Industry. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) notes that the ‘17 SDGs are integrated—that is, they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability’ . Figure 2 shows that some of our projects span across multiple goals, mirroring the intent of the UNDPs comments that action on one goal will effect action on other goals.
One of the project that shows the scope of ALL’s Contribution is the Assistive Product List Implementation Creating Enablement of Inclusive SDGs (APPLICABLE). This Irish Research Council (IRC) funded project aims to propose and facilitate in the development of a framework for creating effective assistive technology (AT) policy. Through extensive research and needs analysis APPLICABLE contributes to the development and delivery of education programmes based on the findings for 14 out of the total of 17 UN SDGs. In addition, APPLICABLE works on UN SDGs goals by developing policies and conducting research on many of the issues. Other projects we are working on such as SHAPES: supporting independence and enhanced quality of life for Europe’s ageing population, is an Innovation Action funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme involving a total of 14 European countries. SHAPES aims at creating an integrated IT platform that will bring together a wide range of digital solutions focused on improving the health, wellbeing, and independence of people as they get older. DreamSpace, is a project by ALL member Dr Katriona O’Sullivan and Microsoft Ireland establishing the educational impact of DreamSpace as an immersive teaching and learning hub, which aims to inspire students and teachers about STEAM: Science Technology Engineering and Math, and 21st century skills in order to prepare and excite them about the future. This is merely two of countess projects in operation dedicated to achieving the goals of the UN SDGs. To see more projects being offered and ran through the ALL Institute see the webpage here.
The ALL Institute members have competed for and were awarded multiple awards to help fund our projects that, as mentioned above, encompass all 17 SDGs. They have been recipient of funding from Irish Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, European Union, the Canadian Institute of Health Research Fellowship, Irish Aid and many more. We have partnered with Microsoft Ireland on various projects, Accenture and other private industry stakeholders, whose donations and funding have given the ALL Institute and its members the capacity necessary to lend our expertise to tackling global issues.
In recognising World Day for Social Justice, we highlight the fundamental role played by the ALL Institute in working towards world-wide inclusive sustainability. Furthermore, it is essential to acknowledge not only the importance of World Day for Social Justice today but to take responsibility individually and collectively to eliminate these global issues to ensure a sustainable future.
To read the full report of the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institutes contributions to the UN SDGs, click here.