The initiative

After the success of the previous editions, the annual appointment with the Sustainable Development Festival returns from 4 to 20 October 2022 throughout Italy, online and abroad. Also this year the Festival will take place in autumn, to maintain continuity with previous editions and to include the presentation of the ASviS Annual Report "Italy and the Sustainable Development Goals".

The Festival raises awareness every year among increasingly large sections of the population on the issues of economic, social and environmental sustainability. With the involvement of hundreds of organizations throughout Italy, the network of Italian embassies and cultural institutes abroad, the active role played by universities and the collaboration of the territories, the initiative reaches millions of people and has excellent results every edition, confirming itself as unique on the international scene and stimulating an unprecedented reflection on the future of our country, Europe and the world.

With thousands of initiatives recorded in its first five editions, the Sustainable Development Festival demonstrates the growing attention of Italian society towards the themes of the 2030 Agenda. Despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, the Festival in 2021 recorded excellent results:

  • over 770 events organized by civil society and the diplomatic network of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
  • three main events organized by ASviS, one of which dedicated to international issues;
  • 18 national events organized by the Alliance working groups (two of which part of the All4Climate initiative of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and one of the Conference on the future of Europe);
  • 22 million people reached in live streaming;
  • 1,4 million of views
  • 50 million impressions for the hashtag #FestivalSviluppoSostenibile and the claim #stiamoagendo
  • 110 million contacts obtained with the spot of the Festival broadcast on Rai radio and TV networks thanks to the Information and Publishing Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Furthermore, thanks to a collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Festival has been enriched with 48 events in 33 countries, on 5 continents organized by the offices of the diplomatic network and by the Italian cultural institutes abroad, contributing to strengthen awareness of the urgency of a transformation to relaunch and make all countries more sustainable. Here is the link to the “best of” the Festival

The Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), which brings together over 300 organizations from the economic and social world, organizes the Festival together with its Members and with the support of Partners and Tutors, over a period of 17 days, as many as Sustainable Development Goals set out in the UN 2030 Agenda[1].


[1] In September 2015, 193 countries, including Italy, signed the 2030 Agenda, thus committing themselves to achieving, by 2030, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, in the English acronym). Since that moment, international organizations, national governments and local authorities, business and civil society associations are mobilizing all over the world to design and implement policies and strategies aimed at achieving the 17 Goals and 169 Targets connected to them.