This SDGs Café’s topic was “partnership”. We invited Mr. Hiroishi from K.K. Empublic and Ms. Kasama from the Kanazawa City Government as guest speakers to imagine Kanazawa in 2030. The SDGs can only be realized through strong partnerships, a point made clear by the explicit inclusion of partnerships in the Goals themselves (Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals). After Ms. Nagai from OUIK introduced the collaborative project between Kanazawa City and JC Kanazawa, Ms. Kasama commented that “My dream is that in 2030, Kanazawa will be a city where everyone can naturally work together to solve social issues.”
Mr. Hiroishi, who works on various partnership projects, introduced problem-solving processes and methods. He explained that ”complex problems” and “difficult problems” are different: difficult problems can be answered, but today’s social problems are complex, with diverse elements and complex contexts that interact and intertwine, so the main cause of the problem cannot be identified. Until now, we have solved one problem at a time. In other words, the only premise is a “problem-free situation”. “What is a problem-free situation? And is it really a good approach to solve problems one by one? At the end of the day it might be quicker and the total cost is cheaper if we try to make a situation where everyone is happy. ” Dynamic problems that are occurring in the system and those that are caused by complex factors require complex solutions. When a problem occurs, it is not something that can be solved if someone does something, rather it is necessary for the local community and society to improve so that they can either solve problems or prevent them in their early stages.
After Mr. Hiroishi’s presentation, participants had a discussion over a newly introduced SDGs action plan for Kanazawa.
