The University of Media, Arts and Communication- Institute of Journalism, has launched the 2024 edition of UniMac Sustainable Development Goals(SDG) Day, themed, Empowering communities for sustainable future: Showcasing SDG innovations”, to reiterate its commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The event presented an opportunity for levels 400 and 300 Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing Students, to campaign for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals five, six, thirteen and fourteen, in a healthy but competitive contest.
The goals aim to create gender equality, clean water, sanitation and hygiene, create a safe climate space and protect lives below water respectively.
Speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of the celebration, a Senior lecturer of the institution, Yaw Odame Gyau, revealed that the event was organised in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program and sanitation giant, Zoomlion, to aid them in zooming in on the development goals to align with the objectives of the organisations for the year.
“Before we started this project at the beginning of the semester, eleven weeks ago, we consulted the UNDP and Zoomlion to determine which SDGs they are focusing on and they told us four SDGs and we also concentrated on that and did the campaigns specifically on that”.
“We decided to tailor our campaigns towards the same SDGs and produce TV adverts and posters and that should help them campaign to promote the issues and the concerns for these four SDGs”
He further stressed on the need for academic works to be made more practical, to address the needs of society.
“I think it’s important that we move the creative work that we do in academia from the shelves and make it more relevant to organisations or the general public. Because we have been doing this for seven years now but two years ago we stepped it up to social media and published all our works on social media open to criticisms, yes but it was also to ensure that people get to learn the need for them to change their attitudes and behaviour through the adverts that we made and it really made an impact, he stated.
Mr Gyau further appealed to all stakeholders to invest in this initiative and bolster students’ input in achieving the SDGs.
Writer: Sarah Appiah/CitiNewsroom
