Jasna Jašarević, Executive director of the Tuzla Community Foundation (Bosnia and Herzegovina), describes the rapid and successful journey of how she and the foundation have embraced the SDGs – now used as the framework for their Vital Signs research and report.
‘Tuzla Community Foundation got to learn about SDGs back in 2017 when our coordinator of Tuzla Vital Signs research, Melika Mulaosmanović, attended the Master Class of International Vital Signs in Ottawa organised within the National Conference of Community Foundations of Canada. Participants were introduced to the UN SDGs and invited to use them as a tool to re-frame their local philanthropic work to a global context. Melika shared with me the report that was presented at the conference From Global Goals to Local Impact and we discussed about the ways of incorporating UN SDG indicators into our next Vital Signs report that we planned to do again in Tuzla region in 2019.
Later in September 2018, at the ECFI meeting in Hamburg, I learnt more about how community foundations promote SDGs through their Vital Signs reports, particularly within the network of the Canadian Community Foundations but also in others around Europe, such as the Milan Community Foundation. In the same year, we got support from Global Fund for Community Foundations to document practices of community philanthropy in the region of Tuzla through the production of our third Vital Signs Report that will promote local impact towards SDG goals through the publication and videos of positive stories in our communities.
In the beginning of 2019, an Expert Group was established with 27 professionals and representatives of different organisations and institutions that discussed SDG goals and worked on the selection of areas to be researched through Vital Signs. They also selected specific indicators that show the quality of life in the region of Tuzla and will also match with some indicators identified within 17 UN SDG goals.
Later, in March 2019, the project team started to promote SDGs through meetings in Vital Signs research in the region of Tuzla with different public institutions, CSOs and ministries who could be valuable resources of secondary data that will be incorporated into our report. Parallel to that, we also launched the survey among 1,000 citizens to discuss the quality of life in our region and priority issues that they are concerned about. Young volunteers from our youth program were engaged in the collection of primary data through a one-on-one survey in 13 cities of the region of Tuzla.
Additionally, in summer 2019, we organised community conversations and meetings with community members where we promoted the SDGs goals and facilitated discussions about research areas and community issues raised by citizens. Through 8 community conversations we had more than 300 participants – the majority having never heard about the UN SDG goals.
The Vital Signs research methodology assumes “scaling” as additional tool to hear citizens’ opinion about the quality of life in the region they live in. Our on-line survey resulted in a further 220 citizens responses.
Our draft Vital Signs Report 2019 for the region of Tuzla in north-east Bosnia and Herzegovina has been sent to the members of an expert group for comments and review. While we are working on the final version of the report, in cooperation with the local TV station we are producing videos on the research findings combined with positive stories about citizens’ engagement in our local community. Through these videos and our new Vital Signs web site, to be launched in early 2020, we will share all the findings and also promote the SDG goals.‘
December 2019
