To raise awareness around the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations Development Programme in Moldova partnered with the Ministry of Education to hold the Social Good Summit 2015 featuring Innovation for education.

“The Social Good Summit is a flagship event for UNDP,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. “We plan to use the Social Good Summit’s platform and audience to help governments and partners launch the Sustainable Development Goals to help make the new Global Goals a household name everywhere.”

With the theme, “New Goals. New power. New technology,” the Social Good Summit in Moldova examines the impact of technology and new media on innovation for education initiatives.

During 2015, Social Innovation Hub, a project of UNDP Moldova and E-Governance Centre, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, worked together to change the conventional approach to the sector reform. A crowdsourcing platform for solutions to ensure Moldovan schools provide life-relevant skills was set up. As a result of this exercise, the development of a career-adviser platform “Cariera Mea” was launched. For the first time, an online revision of school textbooks was conducted. Another innovative pilot project refer to the improvement of the study of mathematics in Moldovan schools. Shortly EduSoft hackathon initiative will be launched for this purpose.

“The role of education in advancing national development agenda is critical, instrumental and indispensable. The Ministry of Education in partnership with UNDP is spearheading a number of initiatives towards this end, which are supporting the educational reform and prototyping innovative approaches and home-grown solutions to the complex development challenges”, said UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Moldova, Dafina Gercheva.

Also, the representatives of the Ministry of Education, local NGOs, parents, students and teachers discussed the possibilities to stimulate critical thinking and how to align the educational system to the labor market needs at a debate.

“Educational system is in strong need of new approaches, capable to ensure the quality increase of the educational process”, told the Deputy Minister of Education, Nadejda Cristea. That is why a Gala of Innovation Promoters in Education was organized for the very first time in April 2015. The most active and innovative teachers were awarded at the event. An autumn camp for 50 teachers and 25 school managers will be organized in October. The participants will benefit of two weeks of training and will be exposed to alternative tools of evaluation and instruments to engage the school community and to develop institution budgets in a participatory manner. “Promoting innovation and related best practices is a priority for our institution, said the official.

The Social Good Summit is organized in premiere in Moldova and is part of more than 100 Social Good Summits organized around the world to raise awareness Sustainable Development Goals in September.

Adopted by all 193 UN Member States, the Sustainable Development Goals are 17 ambitious goals to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change for everyone by 2030. UNDP Moldova stands as a ready partner to support the Republic of Moldova and others to carry forward achieving the Goals at the national level by 2030.

UNDP Moldova’s aim for the Social Good Summit was to help make the new Goals famous at the national level. Making the Goals famous will be the first important step in achieving this new and ambitious development agenda.

In New York, coinciding with the Sustainable Development Summit where the Goals were adopted, the Social Good Summit takes place from 27-28 September, and considers how people and communities are using digital tools to plan for a brighter future by the year 2030. A wide range of speakers from across different sectors and backgrounds include: Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator;  Richard Curtis, Director, Writer, Producer, Founder Project Everyone; Graça Machel; Patti Smith, Musician and Activist; Charlize Theron, UN Messenger of Peace; and Jimmy Wales, Founder & Chairman Wikipedia & Wikimedia Foundation and many more.

About Social Good Summit

Each September, world leaders come together at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss global issues and ways in which to tackle them. Recognizing that the voices and ideas of concerned global citizens connected by social media and technology can be powerful forces for change, UNDP Mashable, 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation first partnered in 2009 to host the Social Good Summit in New York to expand the UN conversations to include innovators, activists and entrepreneurs around the world. Now in its sixth year, the Social Good Summit continues to grow in impact and reach to unite global citizens to unlock the potential of technology to make the world a better place.

About UNDP

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.