“Walking towards SDG12” was born from the meeting of two projects wherein Amycos is involved: “Stairway to SDG” and “Burgos, city for fairtrade”. The idea is to bring all the partners and knowledge about responsible consuming and producing until isolated rural communities of Castilla-y-Leon following the Way of Saint James. Local producers, authorities and consumers will be reunited to take a critical look at current systems and to organize a local network around the SDG 12.

Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain

As explained before, rural depopulation is the first societal challenge for Castilla-y-León. This project could reduce this phenomenon by engaging a dialogue between local producers, authorities and consumers and creating a network of rural areas.
The second societal challenge is the sustainable production and the consumption which is global and characterised by the SDG 12. Castilla-y-León have various territories which means lots of opportunities for rural areas to develop their food autonomy. So another challenge would be to give tools to these areas in order to reply to this SDG 12.
The third societal challenge is active participation. The organization of events and participatory activities the project will sensitize, teach and involve rural communities during the travelling road.

The people along the way live in a situation of isolation in different areas (political, health, education, etc.) because the majority of products and services (awareness-raising activities, training etc.) are offered in medium-sized and large cities.
According SDG 12, we have identified three key target groups: local producers, consumers and authorities. First, we want to find sustainable producers to share and exchange good practices.
With them, we want to sensitize, inform and instill conscious consumption to the consumers. The activities will be a good way to meet the offer and the demand of sustainable products. Finally, we want to involve the local authorities to welcome the meetings, notice what happens and the drive lasting change

The first step will be to analyze the localities of the Way of Saint Jean about their local food system. The second step will be to prepare a document with our partners, explaining our idea and the possible impacts on the different actors. The third step will be to take the contacts with the authorities and the producers of the villages to involve them directly in the organization. The contacts will be the most important part of the plan because they will influence: the path so the territory impacted; the quality of the activities so the involvement of the consumers; the actors of the project so the impact of the dialogue; and the durability of the project. The fourth step is to define the path we will follow with the stopover villages, the activities and the times of discussion. We have lots of ideas for the activities but we want to adapt them to the public. That is why we will involve the authorities and the producers. Then, we can prepare the entire communication campaign which will influence the participation of the consumers. The fifth step will be to define and prepare the group of volunteers and Burgos residents who will march with us. The sixth step is the Walk with the activities, dialogue… The last step will be to ensure the project’s longevity, organising the network with all the actors interested in and disseminating the results at different levels.

At the end of our project phase, we will have a high range of local producers, consumers and authorities aware about the importance of local and sustainable production and consumption. They need to realize their personal role and the importance of their collaboration to reach SDG12. They will be aware of all the benefits they can take back from sustainable production and consumption : social, cultural and economical development at local level; low environmental footprints; fresh and tasty food etc...
Furthermore, we hope to create a local network between different rural communities. Thanks to our activities, dialogues etc… we want to strengthen active citizenship around a local challenge : sustainable production and consumption.

Rural areas need to be involved in the development policies of a territory. Finding administrations and people along the way is an important awareness raising activity that can create new opportunities. Listening to their problems and their proposals for community development is also a democratic exercise and a promotion of active citizenship. Our activities and meetings can build the basis for new political actions or decisions at all levels. We plan to organize a first meeting in Burgos to give visibility to the problematic of SDG12. A last meeting will take place to give voice to the communities we will meet along the way. They represent two important stages at the political level, in which it will be our responsibility to organize a dialogue between them and political decision-makers.

In our team, we have Alessandro Zuottolo who is coordinator in European projects. He is actually coordinating an Erasmus+ project (KA2) called "Stairway to SDG" in cooperation with a several European organizations.
Andrés R. Amayuelas, secretary of Amycos, is a graphic designer expert in communication, he is member of the board of the Coordinator of ONGD de Castilla-y-León. He has lots of contact with organizations in the region. He is actually working on the project named “Burgos, city for Fairtrade” with local partners.
The common point of these two projects is the sustainable production and consumption. The idea of “Walking toward SDG12” is to bring European’s tools and support to reach an international goal at the local level helping isolated rural communities.

Travel accommodation maintenance volunteers + team: 15 000 €

Buying and renting equipment for the march : 2 500 €

Organizational meeting during the march (rent spaces, catering, etc..) 2 500 €

Preparatory Activities (meeting with administrators, travel, oil, etc..) 2000 €

International support (travel, sending organization, etc..) : 3000 €

Communication and Visibility (websites, campaign, dissemination, etc..): 5000 €

Personnel costs: 10 000 €

We are interested in receiving feedback if there are any similar inspiring ideas regarding applying participative approaches to promote sustainable production and consumption. Also, we are open to European people who would participate in this project.