Meath County Council is delighted to announce that their recent application to URBACT (a European exchange and learning programme promoting sustainable urban development) to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) has been successful.  This pilot project, ‘SDGs in cities’, will bring 19 towns and cities from across Europe together to learn from each other, build capacities to the localisation process and develop tools for localising the SDGs. 39 cities applied with Trim being the only Irish town selected. The project which will last approximately 20 months is 70% co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

In April there will be a virtual meeting with the other successful cities and following this will be the establishment of URBACT local group in Trim. People will be informed regularly about the work being done and the lessons learned. The aim of the group will be to share the town’s SDG story while bringing people into the story.

Chief Executive, Jackie Maguire expressed her delight at the news “Being selected for this pilot project is great news for Trim and indeed County Meath, to lead the way in SDGs. In September of 2020 we committed to promote the SDGs in our work and engagement with citizens and stakeholders and this project will allow us to do so more effectively, and the learnings from Trim can be applied county wide.”

Project Lead, Meath County Council’s Climate Action & SDG Officer, Caroline Corrigan stated “The pilot has four areas; awareness, establishing a local agenda, planning the implementation and monitoring and evaluation. This is an excellent project to be involved in, shared and peer to peer learning is invaluable to us and we will also have the additional support of the local Irish office through the expertise of Dr. Mike Brennan.”

In welcoming the news, Cllr. Ronan Moore, Cathaoirleach of the Trim Municipal District said “To be selected as the sole Irish participant in this EU pilot project is a great honour for Trim and speaks volumes of the hard-work and commitment of the Council, particularly those directly involved in climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals. Now that we have been selected for this project, I know I speak for my fellow councillors when I say that we are excited and fully committed to make the most of this huge opportunity and build on the work that is already ongoing in this area."

Cathaoirleach Cllr. David Gilroy who launched the SDG journey back in September commented “Sustainable Development Goals are not some remote way of doing things.  People and communities the length and breadth of the country are already doing many things that fall under the different categories represented by the SDGs.  Sustainability is not new, it is in fact pretty much the way we viewed the world before everything became disposable.  Before everything was cheap and single use. There is little new or unfamiliar in the idea of the SDGs other than their name and I encourage everyone to find out more and get involved. I commend Caroline and her colleagues in Meath County Council and all of the communities who have worked so hard to date.”

The next step will to be to meet the other cities at a (virtual) kick off meeting currently being organised for next month, then it will be time to set up a URBACT local group in Trim. Communication about the project will be regular, so people can see the work being done and the learnings from it, to tell our SDG story and bring people into the story.