Oct 12, 2021
United Nations Day celebrated in Dresden
Keynote speaker Dr. Pia Rattenhuber at the UN Day in the Townhall of Dresden
The festive event on October 5th, 2021 in Dresden City Hall on the occasion of United Nations Day (October 24th, 2021) focused on the topic of "Inequalities in Crises". In addition to a specialist lecture and subsequent discussion, the award ceremony for the Local Agenda Competition also took place. The competition honors projects and initiatives that work for sustainable development and social change in Dresden. In front of the Golden Gate on Rathausplatz, the mobile exhibition “Together stronger” invited visitors to immerse themselves in the world of the United Nations and take a closer look at the UN and its work. The guests were welcomed by the Social Mayor Dr. Kristin Klaudia Kaufmann and the head of the United Nations University - World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) Prof. Kunal Sen.
UN bus at the UN Day in Dresden
Lecture and discussion about inequalities in crises
The keynote speaker was Dr. Pia Rattenhuber from UNU-WIDER on how international crises act as a magnifying glass for existing inequalities and how we can counter them. She emphasized that the Corona crisis, for example, especially in South America and Africa, increased the rate of inequality in the long term, whereas in Europe it increased in the short term. However, crises do not only have inequalities as their origin and vice versa, because many problems always play a role in situations. Solutions seem to be as complex as crises and inequalities are. Afterwards, Social Mayor Dr. Kristin Klaudia Kaufmann, the managing director of the Development Policy Network Saxony e. V. Dorothea Trappe and Prof. Dr. Christian Leßmann from the professorship for economics at the Technische Universität Dresden. Questions from the public were discussed, which were obtained in advance. It became clear that, on the one hand, crises reveal weaknesses and potentials of a society. It is up to us not to simply accept this, but to actively strive for improvements, because "what is made by people can be changed by people" (Christine Mantu, Local Agenda Dresden). On the other hand, the corona crisis also showed the strengths of our social structure, for example.
Awards for sustainable development in Dresden
In the second part of the event, the Local Agenda 21 for Dresden e. V. and the Lions Club Dresden Agenda 21 initiatives as part of the Local Agenda competition that make a special contribution to sustainable development in Dresden. Verwein Stadtgärten e.V., sponsored by SachsenEnergie AG, won the award in the “Education for Sustainable Development and Social Coexistence” category. There was also the “Inequality” audience award, sponsored by Stadtentwässerung Dresden GmbH, which was awarded to the Saxony Development Network. The Social Web macht Schule GmbH convinced the jurors in the category "Sustainable Children and Youth Projects". The special prize was awarded to the Working Group on Sustainable Mobility Dresden North. Congratulations to the committed award winners and thank you for the groundbreaking, innovative and social ideas!
The United Nations in Dresden
76 years ago, on October 24, 1945, the United Nations (UN) Charter came into force. UN locations around the world celebrate this event and the following decades of commitment to world peace and more sustainable development. Dresden is also a UN location, as scientists from all over the world have been working at the United Nations University - Institute for Integrated Material Flow and Resource Management (UNU FLORES) in the World Trade Center since 2012. The organizers of the United Nations Day in Dresden include UNU-FLORES (Link), the Local Agenda 21 for Dresden e. V (Link)., the state capital Dresden (Link), the regional association of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia of the German Society for the United Nations (DGVN), the UNICEF working group Dresden (Link), the Center for International Studies (ZIS), the Technical University of Dresden and the Lions Club Local Agenda 21 Dresden e. V. (Link). The event was broadcast online at the same time and is fully recorded (Link).
Additional Information:
https://flores.unu.edu/en/events/upcoming/un-day-dresden-2021-ungleichheiten-in-krisen-inequalities-in-crises.html#overview