Global Goals World Cup in Davos - release Jan 23rd, 2019

Since 2016 The Global Goals World Cup (GGWCup) has been an active player in pushing the Citizen Agenda by inviting women worldwide to speak up locally for global change while playing football/soccer - some have even changed laws.

SAP Next-Gen and the GGWCup has today launched the Citizens Agenda for the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the Davos House in collaboration with Project Everyone, Global Citizen, P4G, #ILoveGlobalGoals, The Female Quotient and leaders from government, business and non-profits who aim to mobilize citizens around the world for social good.

“We truly believe in the famous words of Nelson Mandela: ‘Sport has the power to change the world.’ Sport has the power to energize and motivate the hearts and minds of billions. It breaks down barriers and allows people to meet at eye level on the field. When we play together, we create the human connections that inspire us to fight side by side for the world we want,” said founders of GGWCup Majken Gilmartin & Rikke Rønholt.

As directors from global society gather in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting prominent thought leaders from businesses, academia, government and society are asking how corporations, governments, institutions and NGOs can actively engage and empower citizens around the world for transformative change and a new phase of global cooperation: Globalization 4.0.

“We have the opportunity to make tremendous progress by 2020 in setting up a decade of delivery for the SDGs, making sure we create a world in which everybody wins,” said Richard Curtis, UN SDG Advocate and co-founder of Project Everyone. “It is only when we bring citizens together with their leaders, businesses, and civil society actors, that we will truly accelerate our progress toward achieving the Global Goals, for everyone.”

The Citizens Agenda guiding principles

The Citizens Agenda for the SDGs includes guiding principles that can be adopted by all of us to make changes leading to a more sustainable future. The agenda supports the following principles:

Listen: listen to citizens and acknowledge that change can come from citizens, not just from corporates, governments and NGOs.
Involve: baseline your SDG initiatives and then consider how you can involve citizens and include their perspectives and innovative ideas to scale impact.
Scale: mobilize citizens to action to help corporates, governments and NGOs scale the impact of SDG programs. Make sure solutions and new ways of living coming from citizens can be scaled up, since citizens’ ideas can be as important and disruptive as ideas from corporates, governments and NGOs.
Share: Create programs and actively engage citizens in SDG movements, sharing stories of what citizens are doing to live more sustainably. Leaders should be ambassadors for sustainable living to inspire citizens to live sustainably.

Special guests and speakers

Christiana Figueres, appointed Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in July 2010, Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo, Danish Minister of Finance Kristian Jensen and Princess Reema Alsaud of Saudi Arabia.

Nico Rosberg, Formula One racing driver and co-founder Green Tech Ame Agnew - Global Citizen Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel, HPI - Lotte Hansen #ILoveGlobalGoals and Ana Hajduka, Africa GreenCo.

About the GGWCup

The GGWCup is developed by the Danish sports organization Eir Soccer, who in 2015 set out alongside with their first partner - UNDP - to use sport as an accelerator for change. Since then they have been creating sports events that inspire women to become champions of the 17 SDGs to help drive progress and change in their communities. To date 2,000 women have already joined the movement and more than 20,000 actions have been implemented. In 2019 GGWCup have planned eight events on four continents.

The tournament is the first women's activist football tournament. It is a 5 aside football event with 6 minute matches. After each game teams get four points: most goals scored, best style, best crowd engagement and best action for a Global Goal. Please visit ggwcup.com for more information.

The GGWCup and the the women on the field are supported by: HRH Crown Prince of Norway and UNDP Ambassador Haakon, HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Prime Minister & Chair of Global Goals Advocacy Erna Solberg, UNDP Goodwill ambassador & actor Nikolaj Coster Waldau (Game of Thrones), singer Annie Lennox, indian artist Rouble Nagi, and many more.