Vesna Vuksan
Univerzitet u Beogradu
Univerzitetska biblioteka „Svetozar Marković“, Beograd
vesnavuksan@gmail.com

doi: 10.19090/cit.2018.33.16-24
No. 33 (November 2018), p. 16-24

Promenade 2030

Summary

At the beginning of 2016, the whole world started talking about a new global agenda. Designed to end poverty by 2030 and pursue a sustainable future, it was unanimously adopted by the 193 Member States of the United Nations (UN). The citizens of Serbia started hearing more about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2018, as media began to report more intensively on meetings of government representatives, NGOs and other stakeholders, and a number of campaigns taking place while portals and social media started buzzing with images, recordings and reports tagged with #GlobalGoals #Serbia2030 #UN2030.
Before the Agenda 2030 was made offi cial, IFLA representatives actively advocated for libraries in the UN meetings. After three years of negotiations, in 2015, libraries became part of the UN 2030 Agenda. The word library is not mentioned in this document, however, access to information, cultural heritage and universal literacy are parts of it.
This moment opened the doors for libraries worldwide to take their seats in the national development plans meetings. The road to reach such point is not easy and this is why IFLA decided to invest in capacity building in all regions of the world and train librarians how to be great advocates in the UN 2030 context and tell their stories better. As for Serbia, this opened numerous opportunities: from attending IFLA International Advocacy Programme training, getting recognized by the National Library of Serbia and supported by the University Library in Belgrade to organize similar trainings in Serbia throughout 2017 and 2018 for over 200 librarians as a part of education program of the Serbian Library Association; being part of IFLA delegation at the most signifi cant SDGs meetings such as High Level Political Forum in New York or Regional Forum for Sustainable Development in Geneve; leading two international projects focused on the UN 2030 Agenda and becoming part of the IFLA Library Map of the World with Stories; producing several international documents which support the capacity building for librarians towards 2030; organizing local events for raising awareness about the SDGs among general population; getting recognized by the UN offi ce in Serbia for all of the eff orts being made to achieve the global goals.
As described, this paper presents what was achieved between December 2016 and October 2018, and opens further questions and opportunities for libraries in Serbia.

Keywords:

sustainable development goals, Agenda 2030, United Nations, access to information, advocacy, IFLA, Serbian Library Association, libraries

Submitted: 14th October 2018
Accepted for publication: 28th October 2018

Promenade 2030 by Vesna Vuksan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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