Dubai Expo 2020 to showcase 25 selected projects providing tangible solutions to global issues under SDGs

Dubai Expo 2020 Dubai, through its Global Best Practice Program, spotlights simple, effective development projects that provide tangible solutions to global issues.

From a Norwegian program to swap plastic waste for financial reward to an online software from Bhutan that calculates healthy, cost-effective school meals to a Cameroonian project to build sustainable refugee camps, all 25 selected projects have the potential to advance collective impact towards the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the universally agreed plan of action for the peace and prosperity of people and the planet.

The Global Best Practice Program, a feature of every World Expo, seeks to spotlight these solutions and provide a platform for knowledge exchange, where stakeholders from across the planet can be inspired and learn from each other, sparking solutions in other parts of the world.

All 25 selected projects will be showcased over six months to the millions of visitors expected to attend Expo 2020 Dubai, as well as more than 200 participants, including 192 countries, multilateral organizations, educational establishments and businesses.

The selected projects were announced at the SDG Action Zone on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, not long after the release of an Expo 2020-commissioned global survey showed that people around the world are united in their desire to create a happier, more inclusive, cleaner planet.

This tallies with Expo 2020’s Global Best Practice theme, ‘Small Steps, Big Leaps: Simple Solutions for Sustainable Impact’, founded on the belief that achieving the SDGs by the 2030 deadline requires local solutions to ensure no-one is left behind.

The program received 1,175 applications from 141 countries. The final 25 projects focus on five priority development areas identified by Expo’s Global Best Practice Program, including inclusive and sustainable service delivery; livelihoods and enterprise development; resilient habitats; social development; and water, food and energy security.

The 25 projects were chosen by a highly prestigious jury that included representatives from the Bureau International des Expositions (the governing body of World Expos), the University of Cambridge, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, United Nations (UN)-Habitat, UN-Water, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.