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Connecting Fund 8 Project Catalyst Funded Proposals to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Razali Samsudin | Dec 6, 2022
Author: Razali Samsudin
Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash
“Over the last 18 months, Project Catalyst has achieved many great things, received and processed over 6.1k proposals, reached over 1.7M votes, and funded around 1.2k projects and more than 800 funded in 2022 alone. Thus far, 275 have been completed, a number which continues to accelerate as time moves forward. These achievements are a testament to the community’s passion and belief in Project Catalyst and the Cardano ecosystem.” – Catalyst Weekly #53, Daniel Ribar, Community at Project Catalyst & Governance, IOHK
Connecting Fund 8 funded proposals to the UN SDGs
During Fund 8 of Project Catalyst, the Cardano community rose again to give their voting power in support of continued research into the connections between Fund 8-funded proposals and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Collaboration with international bodies working in the so called developing and developed world will accelerate the mass adoption of Cardano’s blockchain solutions.
In order to accelerate mass adoption and work seamlessly with diverse stakeholders from multilateral organizations like the UN to national Governments, it is important to be able to understand one another, and therefore a common language is helpful.
The funded proposal above laid out the plan for our team to continue researching the use and application of one such common language through the prism of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the UN Human Rights Index.
For more on the results of our previous research study focused on Fund 6-funded proposals, read more here, and on Fund 7-funded proposals, here.
Below are some of the significant findings from our latest research into how Fund 8 funded proposals are connected to SDGs:
- 379 Proposals received funding
- 85% of proposals (323) are connected to SDGs
- 55% (208) directly connected to SDGs
- 30% (115) indirectly connected to SDGs
- 100% (12) of Fund 9 Challenge Setting proposals are related to SDGs
- 92% (11) directly connected to SDGs
- 8% (1) indirectly connected to SDGs
Since our team began our research began in Fund 6, November 2021, in $ USD terms, the total allocated via community vote to funded proposals that connect to the SDGs amounts to:
- Total Fund 6 SDG connected (Direct and Indirect) = $3,072,702
- Total Fund 7 SDG connected (Direct and Indirect) = $4,990,375
- Total Fund 8 SDG connected (Direct and Indirect) = $10,949,037 (including Fund 9 Challenge settings = $23,749,037)
Via Project Catalyst, the world’s largest decentralized innovation fund, Cardano ₳ ADA holders vote on the proposals that they support to receive allocated ADA from the Cardano treasury.
With Cardano’s sophisticated voting system, these figures demonstrate a pioneering moment and a testament to how Cardano’s blockchain technology and innovative experiment in on-chain governance and community voting are directing finance to support change makers worldwide.
SDG Proposal Framework Tool
As members of Cardano AIM, Sustainable ADA, working in collaboration with Lucio, Victor, Phil and Yoram, released an updated edition of the SDG Proposer Tool available for public use during the proposal submission phase of Fund 8.
New and old proposers were able to learn about the UN SDGs framework, and connect their ideas and projects to the relevant goals, subgoals, metrics, and get inspiration and ideas for designing their own KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure and track their project’s impact.
In addition, the UN Human Rights Framework was added to the Proposer Tool (exploring the integration of UN Human Rights Charter) to assist proposers in creating proposals ready for submission in Project Catalyst and other finance/grant sources. The Proposer Tool has been helping teams with planning projects that integrate connections to common global frameworks, as part of their Monitoring and Evaluation of KPIs, as well as impact measurement and communication.
To learn more and try out the SDG Proposer Tool for yourself, visit the site at:
During Fund 8 the SDG Proposer Tool became integrated into the Project Catalyst Proposal Submission process, as an optional field entry whereby proposers could detail how their proposals connect to SDGs.
This was a great collaboration between Cardano AIM, Sustainable ADA, and the Catalyst team for an initiative to build a bridge between the Cardano Catalyst ecosystem and global impact frameworks such as the UN SDGs.
Here is a video we made at Sustainable ADA on why and how to use the SDG Proposer Tool:
Why is all of this important?
We are living in a climate emergency.
With rising costs of living, inflation, and conflict around the world, the stakes may never have been higher.
Cardano, Project Catalyst and the Cardano community have a choice to make between investing in an equitable world and future, or funding a pathway towards a catastrophe.
“If the world is to meet the climate change, biodiversity, and land degradation targets, it needs to close a USD 4.1 trillion financing gap in nature by 2050. The current investments in Nature-based solutions amount to USD 133 billion – most of which comes from public sources.” – UN, State of Finance for Nature, 2021
A report published by the University of Manchester has declared that the world’s governments must urgently transition away from the use of oil and gas.
If we are to build a better world together, one that is equitable and enables everyone to live a healthy life, political willpower is urgently needed.
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Egypt from 6 to 18 November 2022, seeks renewed solidarity between countries to deliver on the landmark Paris Agreement, for people and the plan.
In the meantime, as alarm bells ring and the climate clock ticks, the decentralized global Cardano community is answering the call.
Project Catalyst’s Fund 10 is around the corner, due to open in November 2nd 2022. Perhaps records will be broken again. 364k votes were cast during Fund 9 – 1 vote per proposal, marking a 53% increase in participation fund on fund, taking the total votes cast since Catalyst began to 1.5m votes.
With Fund 9 final voting announcements already made, unlocking ₳ 12,725,000 for financing proposers and their projects in community-created created challenge categories connected to SDGs, the opportunities to make a positive difference are here. The time for action is now.
