UN project engaging more than 100 musicians from Rio de Janeiro

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has partnered with documentarists from Italy and Brazil to produce a film about the power of music to encourage people to pursue a sustainable development agenda.

The film will tell the story of the first network of musicians committed to sustainability and the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A pilot project is in progress in the Baixada Fluminense, an underserved region in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. It will serve as a model that can be replicated by the programme's offices in 166 developing countries.

Rio de Janeiro is the birthplace of the 2030 Agenda, a global action plan consisting of 17 Sustainable Development Goals  (SDGs) ratified by all 193 member countries of the United Nations. Created at the Rio+20 Conference in 2012, the UN agenda and the SDG's are part of an action plan to gear development standards towards sustainability.

The 2030 Agenda is a commitment by governments to address such issues as social exclusion and inequality, which undermine development. According to the UN, the goals will only be met if citizens and civil society organisations take an active role in pressuring their local and national governments to take responsibility and meet these internationally agreed goals.

Pilot project

The UN pilot project with musicians from the Baixada region has been led by the UNDP Sustainable Development Centre (RIO+ Centre) since June 2016, with about 100 local musicians and bands getting involved so far. Among other activities, they have held workshops on the 2030 Agenda and the SDG's in the region, and produced a CD with original songs with themes related to sustainability.

This month, the filmmakers—Christian Tragni from Italy and Juliana Spinola from Brazil—and the UN are producing a film in Belford Roxo, Nova Iguaçu, Duque de Caxias, and other cities in the region. Last Thursday (Jan 19), they shot scenes of a rap battle at a culture centre in Belford Roxo.

“We want to reach out to the communities—not through institutions which often have difficulties connecting with poorer populations—but to introduce some of the topics that emerged from Rio+20 through artists and musicians who are physically closer to the population,” Tragni said.

Last year, as rapper Roberto de Oliveira Silva, also known as MC Eddi, told us, a group of musicians created a collective called “Baixada nunca se rende” (“Baixada never surrenders” in a literal translation), which has partnered with the Rio+ Centre in using music to promote the SDGs. “We had our activities in the Baixada with songs about social justice and ending poverty, it's been going for a while now. This encounter with the UN talking about the SDG's—there's so much of this in our songs. Rap speaks straight to the youth,” the rapper said.

Translated by Mayra Borges