Green Clubs Sustainable Development Goals
LGFA CEO Helen O’Rourke, Chairman of CCMA Michael Walsh, Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael John Horan, Chariman of Local Autority Climate Change Steering Group Ciarán Hayes, Camogie Operations Manager Alan Malone, DCCAE Katie Aherne, and former Wexford hurler Diarmuid Lyng pictured at the GAA Local Authority SDG Launch at Croke Park.
SDGs
In September 2015, 193 countries met in New York and signed the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This Agenda has become the guide to the world’s social, economic, and environmental actions to achieve a sustainable future by 2030. The framework consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs). Each of these goals has a number of targets associated with it (169 in total). Indicators identify the data that will be used to measure progress towards these targets and to determine if it has been achieved successfully by 2030.
The global progress is monitored by the UN. Individual countries must provide voluntary national reviews including stakeholder involvement. In Ireland, the overall responsibility for implementing the UN SDGs lies with the Department of Communications, Climate Action, and Environment (DCCAE). Inclusion is at the core of the UN SDGs, and as a result, governments, the corporate sector, and citizens are called upon to make the SDG agenda a reality.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Champions Programme is an initiative established by the SDG Unit in the Department of Communication, Climate Action, and Environment. The SDG Champions Programme has the potential to achieve nationwide prominence and raise public awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of the SDG Champions Programme is primarily to raise public awareness of the SDGs, and secondarily to illustrate practical ways in which organisations and individuals can contribute to achieving the SDGs, using Champion organisations’ practices as examples. Each Champion organisation is focusing primarily on a select number of SDGs each. As individual Champions will promote specific SDGs, each of the twelve campaigns will be distinct in terms of the goals they are championing.
The GAA has been award SDG Champion Status for Goals 3 – Good Health & Wellbeing, 4 – Quality Education, 15 – Life on Land and 17 – Partnerships.
We are committed to developing healthy and sustainable communities. Good Health & Wellbeing are direct outcomes of participation in physical activity and meaningful social engagement. We offer opportunities for both through quality coaching and initiatives delivered by our Community & Health Department, such as the Healthy Club Project. We are innovators in Quality Education through our Coach Education and Officer Development Programmes as well as in mainstream education with our GAA Future Leaders Transition Year Programme. The GAA club ensures that the Association has a footprint in the physical environment of nearly every community in Ireland.
Conscious of our impact on the physical environment, we endeavour to work in harmony with our surroundings to support biodiversity and life on land and are building a Green Club Toolkit to further our contribution in a sustainable way. By building partnerships with other stakeholders at all levels of the Association, the GAA endeavours to embed sustainable development concepts and practices throughout the organisation. Our Clubs have been innovators in addressing many of Ireland’s social concerns and are already rising to the challenge of supporting the SDGs.
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