December 2019 National Sustainable Development Goals Stakeholder Forum

A key commitment in the Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan 2018-2020 was the establishment of the National SDG Stakeholder Forum. This was established in June 2018.

The sixth meeting of the National SDG Stakeholder Forum was held on Wednesday 18 December 2019 in Dublin Castle, Dame Street, Dublin 2. The theme for this session of the Forum was SDG 2: Zero Hunger.

The morning session involved a panel discussion with Aidan Fitzpatrick, from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Aoibheann O'Brien - CEO of Food Cloud, Philip Alston - United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights and Judith Hitchman - President of Urgenci International. This was an interactive discussion which was well received from all stakeholders and there was a lot of positive energy in the room around the discussion.

We followed this with three speakers on SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals from a business perspective with Chambers Ireland – James Kiernan, Business In The Community - Tomás Sercovich and Grow Circle - Karen O'Donohue, again this was a lively discussion with some passionate debate around the SDGs and how business can and is becoming more involved.

The key note presentation was given in the afternoon by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed TD, and a copy of his speech can be accessed here. His speech was well received and the Minister stayed for some Q&A which led again to some positive debate in the room.

Overall the day was a success, we trialed a new format for the set-up of the room going with a round table, cabaret style, which led to a more interactive debate for the Stakeholders and was generally deemed a success and a positive for the continued growth of the Forum.

Also available is the Facilitator's Report of the day's proceedings, which includes all topics discussed at the Forum.