There are many creative ways to bring a higher level of impact and awareness about the SDGs to your Model UN program. Taking time to brainstorm some ideas with your club or conference’s leadership team will likely yield other ideas. If you develop something that works well, contact us so we can add it to this list! Better yet, let us profile your program on our MUN Impact blog.
1. Theme your MUN conference around one of the SDGs, identify an appropriate charity related to the theme, and raise money for this organization. Highlight their work and the way it supports what students have been debating.
2. Start and mentor a new MUN club in a school that doesn’t normally have access to Model United Nations. Through sponsorship or free registration waivers, find a way to make conference access free.
3. Create an MUN conference where each committee is themed around an SDG. Instead of GA 1, ECOSOC and Environment Commission, have committees that are SDG 16, SDG 4 and SDG 13.
4. Host a movie night and show a film linked in some way to the SDG. Invite a guest speaker who can talk about their work to support the SDG in question and the focus of the film in particular.
5. Find (or create) a social media hashtag campaign to join. Encourage your club or conference participants to participate in an awareness campaign.
6. Organize a petition to be signed by conference participants around an issue or topic (you can combine this with #1). If an NGO or advocacy group is promoting the petition, make a representative available to interact with conference attendees.
7. Create an SDG parent information campaign. Delegates create a simple SDG information campaign using print, visual and other resources to share with parents in their community.
8. Adopt-an-SDG! Have your school adopt one SDG each year, (or month), and create a monthly assembly to promote and educate. Invite a special guest speaker or NGO to help educate your school community. Use posters, videos, announcements during any assemblies of the full school to educate on this SDG. The World’s Largest Lesson has great resources for this purpose.
9. Translate the SDGs into local languages not easily accessible through UN media outlets. Break down the SDG in an informative 2-3 minute video and create a plan to share with local media and social media platforms. See this as an example.
10. Help your librarian to create an SDG month and identify fiction and non-fiction books that highlight a particular SDG. Find an age appropriate book to read to a younger class, and explain what the SDG is and how it relates to the book.
11. Create a reading club with an elementary school and share the Comics Uniting Nations series. Hold a career day for younger students and let them meet everyday superheroes who are working to promote the SDGs.
12. Dance for the SDGs! Develop a community event around a dance marathon. Select 2-3 SDGs and associated local agencies to raise money for. Invite individuals representing these groups to participate in the dance marathon. Promote in your school community.
13. Create an informational table that focuses on some of the core targets of the SDG and share this within your community (shopping center, community event etc)..
14. Initiate a ‘Make a Difference’ project. Find connections with government bodies and institutions to jointly design a project delegates can be involved in.
15. Host a ‘Leadership Round Table’ with other student leaders from service clubs at your school. Educate on the SDGs, look for current SDG alignment, and make a commitment to promote the SDGs via non-MUN clubs and/or to design a collaborative project.
16. Create an MUN Impact Zone at your conference: allow clubs and student initiatives to have a table and highlight their work to support the SDGs
17. Create a trust fund / NGO or be a member / benefactor of one that uses its funds to improve the access to education for students in low income countries or students belonging to communities with an underfunded education system.
18. Launch a sustained conference charity or project that participants can contribute to, and involve themselves in, over a longer period of time.