The Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development is the first in a series of annual forums, hosted by the UN SDG Action Campaign and supported by the Federal Government of Germany.

Leading thinkers, policy-makers and civil society, were joint together with gaming experts and policy simulators, to deliver the world’s first playable policy conference. 

RCE Middle Albania attended sessions on “Resource Efficiency” and “Unlocking Green Economy Opportunities” with a focus on the expanding the renewable energy sector with an emphasis on a circular economy.

"This conference was extremely important for us here at RCE Middle Albania, as we are trying to adopt a programme to facilitate SDG-implementation at the local level,"  said Kalterina Shulla, RCE Coordinator of RCE Middle Albania. 

"Our current research in this area is focused on themes mentioned above, such as the influence of networks in fostering SDG-implementation at the regional level and identification of common essential sustainability variables, applicable to more than one Goal, based on examples of  RCEs' alternative governance approaches”. 

The event encouraged everyone to tackle some of the world’s most complex development challenges. The forum featured interactive elements including a live, collaborative policy game, a trade fair of development innovations, and virtual reality simulations. It addressed globalization and inequalities, resource efficiency and green economy, and disruptions in development. More than 800 participants were in the conference.

The Game “2030 Hive Mind”, a real-time policy simulation game, explored one can and eventually needs to collaborate to achieve the SDGs by 2030. All  participants were invited to play, in order to reveal the tough choices and trade-offs, between the goals, to look how policies work and how to form a network of influence. The most important message from this policy game was to show the players a pathway to form of effective collaborative coalitions to support multiple SDGs, without such coalitions and collaborations the implementation of goals will be impossible.

It also showed the complicated inter-linkages that may interfere with the implementation of specific targets. Overall it showed how game theory may help develop SDG implementation strategies, and how one can overcome obvious conflicting, and contradictory, objectives

The Knowledge and Innovation Fair,  during the course of hree days gave RCE Middle Albania the chance to learn about new approaches to advance the SDGs. Some of the best examples were immersive storytelling, data collection and data visualization, as well as the private sector, governments, UN and civil societies being involved with the communities.

uBegin was introduced, an online social environment with tools for project collaboration and matching resources to project needs. Supported through a network of on-the-ground Community Organizers, people discover solutions to challenges, learn from thought leaders and work together to realize common goals.

As actions by state players will not suffice to fullfill the SDGs, actors on the ground in their different forms needed to be involved. This was stressed throughout the conference.