Sustainable Development Goals & iCRA’s Impact
Finding a way to create a real impact and to leave our mark while bettering the world
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an ambitious plan of action for people, planet and prosperity, recognizing that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth.
The SDGs help to focus development efforts; to join hands to make a difference. Looking through the ‘SDG lens’ allows us to structure and monitor our activities and ensure maximum impact where it really matters.
How iCRA’s work contributes
iCRA is dedicated to improving the livelihoods of farmers and their communities. We do this by making research, education, innovation and agribusiness WORK; we help bridge gaps, develop trust & mutual understanding and bring different worlds and actors together – to find solutions that benefit all.
With our project work in collaboration with our partners, open-entry and tailor made courses, we contribute to various SDGs.
For nearly 40 years, iCRA has been supporting researchers and educators to learn to make research and education WORK for development – to help family farmers and the rural poor achieve food security and decent sustainable livelihoods. Supporting professionals and communities in fighting poverty (SDG 1) and hunger (SDG 2) lies at the very core of our existence and our everyday work. We focus on organizational strengthening in three impact domains: agribusiness, education and research. In agribusiness we invest in people, their skills, business relationships and partnerships to bring value chains to the next level and improve livelihoods of everyone involved. Providing quality education (SDG 4) is key to our approach. iCRA believes that by transforming education we can help young people to become the big change makers we need to feed this world. We work closely with universities and vocational training centres from all over the world, to deliver the next generation of entrepreneurial and hands-on graduates. In curricula we promote to include functional skills necessary to allow technical and agribusiness skills to be utilized to the full. Together with our partners we co-create engaging competency-based curricula that align with labour market needs. Providing decent work opportunities and economic growth (SDG 8) are essential impact indicators of quality education and therefore also vital to us.
Research can have a positive and long-lasting impact on society when translated into tangible solutions (SDG 1 & 2). To make sure research and interventions match the need of communities and the overall agriculture sector, iCRA facilitates participatory, capacity needs assessments and training with and for farmer organizations, agri-food SME’s and business advisory services. We support them to engage and function in effective partnerships (SDG 17) with research and knowledge institutes.
The facilitation and strengthening of partnerships (SDG 17) is an essential element of our approach and therefore seen as a catalyst for all our other work. We believe good functioning partnerships are the basis of sustainable impact and key to eradicate poverty and hunger for good (SDG 1 & 2).
Of course, all SDG’s interconnect and most are, each in its own way, incredibly relevant to the work of iCRA. Take SDG 5 and 10 for example, for gender and equality. Equal opportunity and developing chances for minority and disadvantaged groups within education and research institutions, as well as within stakeholder networks i.e. inclusiveness is very high on our agenda and features in all our activities. Access to knowledge, funds and agricultural inputs is not a given for all and with our inclusive approach to on-the-job coaching, training and process facilitation, iCRA aims to fight these inequalities in gender, power dimensions and income. Our work involves facilitating solutions from the source also for water (6), responsible production (12), climate change (13) and stronger institutions (16).
Now with the global COVID-19 pandemic and its severe detrimental effects on vulnerable groups we need to be on the alert and willing to put in some extra effort to include these groups in our work and make them part of sustainable solutions.
The ECART project and SDG’s
The ECART project at Gulu University’s Faculty of Agriculture and Environment (FAE) was able to illustrate iCRA’s involvement with some key SDG factors. Focusing on topics such as gender inclusivity and enriching local communities, iCRA was able to observe real impact being made. Do you want to know more? Check out the videos from the project below or visit our YouTube channel here.