Dear Partners,
We are less than a month away from International Development Week (IDW) 2020 (February 2-8)! We’re excited to work with you, our partners, to inform, inspire, and involve Canadians in international assistance!
This year, we’re challenging Canadians to #GoForTheGoals, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with particular attention to goal 5 – Gender Equality – aligning with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy.
What’s happening during IDW and how can you and your organization take part? Great question!
Your staff may have already shared IDW 2020 information. Even so, this IDW is so special, I’m following up with this personal invitation.
In-person Events: Partners across Canada hold many different events during the week. We encourage all of our partners to plan, collaborate, or attend events. To help promote partner events, we will post an IDW 2020 Events Calendar on our website and we invite partners to use the IDW 2020 visual identity tools and materials in their promotion. The IDW Guide may help with planning too.
Digital Campaign: Join us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook from January 13 to February 9 to participate in our online campaign (details follow below signature). We’re challenging Canadians to take a different SDG-related action each week! Canadians will post photos or videos of their actions on their social media channels and challenge followers to take part and #GoForTheGoals too! For details, visit our campaign page.
Signature Event: Global Affairs Canada will host a dynamic national signature event. By broadcasting it live on social media, we will bring it to Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast and around the world. We encourage everyone to gather with friends and colleagues to view it, and to engage via our online platform.
We have more details on the IDW website and via #GoForTheGoals on social media. Let’s all #GoForTheGoals together!
Sincerely,
Caroline Leclerc
Assistant Deputy Minister | Sous-ministre adjointe
Partnerships for Development Innovation | Partenariats pour l’innovation dans le développement
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Digital Campaign Details
#GoForTheGoals Social Media Campaign – January to February
This year’s 30th edition of IDW will build on Canada’s long history of inspiring Canadians. From January 13th to February 8th, GAC will run a campaign of four #GoForTheGoals social media challenges. They will be fun, interactive, and most importantly, easy for Canadians to participate in.
Through these challenges, GAC and partners will invite Canadians to take small actions in their lives that have a global impact. Canadians will be encouraged to take a different action each week for four weeks leading up to and during IDW 2020. Each action will be linked to the SDGs.
Challenges
Challenge 1: Clean out your fridge and make a meal with all your leftovers to help reduce food waste!
o Launch date: January 13, 2020,
Challenge 2: Plant a seed or tree in a pot, or build a vertical garden with recycled bottles. Post a photo or video on social media.
o Launch date: January 20, 2020
Challenge 3: Complete this statement by writing down a word or phrase: “To me, living in a gender equal and inclusive world means…” Take a photo or video of you holding your statement, and post it on social media.
o Launch date: January 27, 2020
Challenge 4: Building a partnership takes patience, compromise, and most of all trust. Do a trust exercise with a group of people, such as forming a circle with each of you sitting in each other’s laps without the use of a chair. Post a photo or video on social media.
o Launch date: Feb 3, 2020
What we need from you:
We invite you to engage your champions and your staff to participate in the challenge actions and post about them on social media. We also invite you to promote each action on your social media channels, on or after the launch dates listed above.
We also invite you to publish stories on social media that demonstrate how you are contributing to the SDGs.
Please include #GoForTheGoals, #IDW2020, and #Can2030Agenda and tag Global Affairs Canada using the following handles:
- @CanadaDev on Twitter
- @gacanada.amcanada on Instagram
- @CanadaDevelopment on Facebook
Do not hesitate to contact robyn.euverman@international.gc.ca or krista.humick@international.gc.ca with any questions you may have.