On February 26, in I UNED International SDG Day: UNED, a university open to the SDGs, the CA UNED Dénia team went to Madrid to collect the 5st UNED ODS Award for their contribution to SDG No. XNUMX with their work: Exploring Equality with COE and DUCA.
SDG 5 is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Equality, which reads “Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, but it is also crucial for sustainable development. It has been proven time and again that empowering women and girls has a multiplier effect and helps to promote economic growth and development worldwide. ” (UNDP)
The UNED, the largest public university in number of students, decided to integrate the United Nations 2030 Agenda into its Strategic Plan (2019 - 2022), thus creating the SDG Observatory and confirming its commitment, both theoretical and practical, with the values advocated by the 17 SDGs of the United Nations.
The "First International SDG Day of the UNED: UNED, a university open to the SDGs" affects education, research, knowledge transfer and excellence in governance to ensure sustainable social and economic progress in around the world and strengthen universal peace, equality and freedom of opportunity for everyone - objectives of the SDGs-, which is why Federico Mayor Zaragoza highlighted: “You are showing here how you should act and for that I congratulate you”.
The Observatory table was chaired by Mr. Ricardo Mairal Usón, Rector of the UNED; Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Honorary President of the ODS UNED Observatory, former Director General of UNESCO and honorary doctorate in Education from UNED; the executive director of the Spanish Global Compact Network, Cristina Sánchez; the vice-rector of Institutional Policy and International Relations and first vice-rector, Esther Souto; and the vice-dean of the Faculty of Education, María José Bautista-Cerro.
During the award ceremony Raquel Martí Signes, Director of CA UNED Dénia stressed that “For the Associated Center UNED DÉNIA, it has meant an institutional recognition of a rewarding and useful work for society. When we were awarded the I UNED ODS Prize, we thought that our effort had been worthwhile, that what we believe and work in can become visible in a mature society that demands respect and training. The main purpose of this project is to develop pedagogical tools aimed at promoting coeducation at an early age from childhood and adolescence to adulthood, all coordinated under the UNED DÉNIA Equality Observatory since its creation in 2012.
The innovation of this study is that after applying the pedagogical techniques and tools related to coeducation, the results improve, creating an environment of equality and respect towards diversity and non-violence ”.
