Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature took part in an exciting new project, initiated by Iowa City, that drew attention to the 17 UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals.

These objectives form a program of sustainable, universal and ambitious development, a program of the people, by the people and for the people, conceived with the active participation of UNESCO. The book campaign encouraged participating cities to post book suggestions written locally and relevant to the SDG of the day. The campaign was timed to coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference that took place in Madrid from 2- 13 December. A key objective of the conference was to ratify implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Several of the 39 UNESCO Cities of Literature, including Ōtepoti Dunedin, took part directly, while others reposted and retweeted selections to broaden the reach of the message across the globe.

This was a wonderful opportunity to promote work by authors living in our great small city to the rest of the world. It was also an opportunity to showcase the importance of books in stimulating ideas and finding solutions to the big issues facing people and planet.

https://twitter.com/IowaCityofLit