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“One of the most amazing things about BIG DAMAGE was that it brought out how the 17 SDGs cannot be met in silos. Participants agreed that while they had expertise in working on one goal they needed to collaborate and learn more about the effects they are having on other goals with their work to truly go sustainably.”
Ms. Shaan is a Global Ambassador for World Merit. For the SIMA SDG Challenge, Ms. Shaan chose to screen the film BIG DAMAGE which reveals the human face of logging in Papua New Guinea. It is a tale of exploitation and broken promises, where local people are treated as second-rate citizens in their own country by Malaysian logging companies and corrupt politicians. Through the film, she encouraged the audience to connect with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number 15 predominantly, and SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Why did you choose the SIMA Academy film BIG DAMAGE?
Before deciding on this film, I discussed the choices with the members of our partners, UNDP. Since they are based in the Asia Pacific region, it made sense to show a documentary relevant to their work so we narrowed down on the two from this region which were SDG 4 and SDG 15. Following further discussion, we made the final call on Big Damage since it highlights, not just SDG 15, but has a narrative that outlines and shows the interconnectedness to SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
How did the screening meet your objectives for the overall event?
The objective was to spark discussion and ‘food for thought’ among professionals already working in this field. I believe the screening definitely was able to do that since the participants were easily able to relate this to their work, their countries and communities and think of the stakeholders they can work with to influence the different organizations and individuals that create or solve the problems highlighted in the documentary.
Can you tell us if and how this event changed the audience’s awareness of the subject matter?
One of the most amazing things about Big Damage was that it brought out how the 17 SDGs cannot be met in silos. Participants agreed that while they had expertise in working on one goal they needed to collaborate and learn more about the effects they are having on other goals with their work to truly go sustainably. While Big Damage focuses on SDG 15 it highlights how logging in Papua New Guinea is not just a Life on Land and environmental issue but largely a human rights issue. It helped push thinking and change perspectives which is what most participants shared in the discussion. They also valued the screening and film as a medium of change and wanted to push for more such screenings over time.
How many audience members signed up for another similar event?
While we couldn’t take a quantitative survey on the exact number of people who wanted to sign up for a further event, in the discussion, members of UNDP asked that we may institutionalize such screenings for knowledge building and provoking food for thought and collaboration. We will shortly begin the processes of scaling these types of thought provoking screenings in the near future as a means for generating further awareness.
Did the event inspire a campaign and/or new relationships between panelists, audience members or organizations?
We had a fantastic discussion group including Ms. Ke Lin, a youth consultant from UNDP was our point of contact for this discussion, and Shaan, the current Global Ambassador for World Merit facilitated the panel. Since most of the participants were working as social development professionals, the discussion was left open to all. The main topics of discussion at the event focused on: Collaboration to meet the SDGs, gender roles in leadership to solve human rights issues, film as a medium for change and lastly, identifying stakeholders for structures problem solving. New relationships and ways of thinking were fostered between different departments as well as participants from World Merit and Youth CoLab at UNDP.
