Conservation Innovation GCED innovators

Active Citizenship Aotearoa – Active Citizenship Aotearoa’s mission is to empower, engage and educate young New Zealanders to become active citizens. ACA was founded by a group of university students who believe that a range of tools are available to New Zealand to increase voter turnout amongst youth. Their focus is on civics education.

UN Youth – UN Youth is a non-profit organisation that provides civics education outside the traditional classroom context. Their aim is to inspire global citizens to lead in the spirit of the UN.

Inspiring Stories – Inspiring Stories is a social enterprise operating nationwide with the vision to see every young New Zealander unleash their potential to change the world.

Festival for the Future is their flagship event. The weekend will bring together innovators and influencers from across the country to explore big issues, build skills, share ideas, and hear from inspiring people doing remarkable things to make the world a better place.

Create1World is a conference for young people aged 12-18 organised by Massey University, which is a feast of creative inspiration from other young people and leading artivists (artists who use their creativity to generate change).

ASPnet – The UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) links educational institutions across the world around a common goal: to build the defences of peace in the minds of children and young people. The network is currently focused on SDG Target 4.7 on global citizenship education.

ASPnet operates at both international and national levels. A team at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris oversees the network’s international coordination. At the country level, ASPnet National Coordinators are designated by UNESCO’s National Commissions. Principals, teachers and students lead activities in member schools.

Oxfam New Zealand – Oxfam promotes global citizenship in schools, and that it is best implemented through a whole-school approach.

Oxfam has produced a number of global citizenship guides which includes a Curriculum for Global Citizenship as well as case studies outlining best practices in the classroom, activities that can be adapted for use in many curriculum areas and other resources.

NZ Centre for Global Studies (NZCGS) – NZCGS is a charitable educational trust which supports the promotion and development of global citizenship education in New Zealand and beyond, in keeping with international trends and obligations, the Sustainable Development Goals and the aspirations of the New Zealand Curriculum.

With the help of the National Commission, NZCGS ran two student conferences in 2016 and produced a discussion document ‘Global Citizenship Education in New Zealand’. The discussion documents are based on international and domestic research into best practice on GCED.

The Ākina Foundation – The Ākina Foundation supports people with ideas to drive positive social and environmental change through social enterprise.

UNICEF NZ – The United Nations Children’s Fund is focused on protecting the rights of children all over the world. They bring together governments, donors, humanitarian agencies and children themselves to achieve their goals.

They recently asked a group of rangatahi (young people) to help design a platform for Kiwi youth. It’s a platform that allows youth to discuss issues important to them, it’s anonymous and it’s totally free to use. It’s called U-Report.

You can have your say by signing up to be a U-Reporter. Message ‘JOIN’ to U-Report NZ on Facebook or Twitter and they will register you. Then you can start sharing your whakaaro (ideas) on issues you care about, and help make changes here in New Zealand and globally.

Human Rights Commission – The New Zealand Human Rights Commission is committed to ensuring that all New Zealanders know what the Global Goals are, and how they can help realise a freer, fairer, safer, and more just New Zealand.

United Nations Association of New Zealand – UNA NZ promotes and supports the aims and objectives of the United Nations, including the SDGs.

Council for International Development – The Council for International Development (CID) is the national umbrella agency of international development organisations based in Aotearoa New Zealand. The SDGs are one of CID’s work streams.

UN Sustainable Development Goals courses – Several free online courses on the SDGs run by 17 participating universities are available through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS).

McGuiness Institute – The McGuinness Institute is a non-partisan think tank working towards a sustainable future for New Zealand. CivicsNZ aims to build social capital and improve empowerment of New Zealand citizens. It has two main work streams:

• closely following the progress of the Constitutional Advisory Panel, researching and reporting on key elements or issues
• beginning preliminary discussions around pursuing a national strategy for civics and citizenship education in schools and in the community, as recommended by the Constitutional Advisory Panel.