UVic and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Collaborating across institutions, organizations and sectors
UVic's contribution to the SDGs depends on working with partners: governments, other universities, community groups and non-governmental organizations. The examples below show how the university helps shape public policy, joins cross-sectoral and international dialogue, contributes to global SDG data, develops shared best practice, and works with NGOs.
UVic researchers give direct input into the public policy that advances the SDGs, including through formal government advisory roles. Dr. Katya Rhodes serves on Canada's Sustainable Development Advisory Council, which advises Environment and Climate Change Canada on the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, and Dr. Madeleine McPherson sits on British Columbia's Climate Solutions Council, which gives government strategic advice on climate action and clean growth. In 2024, Dr. Basma Majerbi joined the advisory group of BC's new ESG Centre of Excellence. The POLIS Water Sustainability Project, part of UVic's Centre for Global Studies, provides ongoing briefings to the BC government on priorities for its Watershed Security Strategy and Fund, advised the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs as it scoped the province's new water metering project, and used 2024 research to identify which communities remain unmetered. UVic's Environmental Law Centre also prepares law-reform submissions for government, including recommendations on ending public financing for the international fossil fuel industry.
UVic convenes and takes part in cross-sectoral dialogue about the SDGs. The Victoria Forum, co-hosted by UVic and the Senate of Canada, brings academics, policymakers, business leaders, Indigenous communities and civil society together to develop solutions to shared global challenges. Its 2025 edition, held in August 2025 under the theme "Towards a Better Future: Shifting the Trajectory," focused on all 17 SDGs and drew more than 600 in-person participants across 48 sessions. CIFAL Victoria, the training centre UVic hosts with the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), convenes multisectoral dialogue on SDG implementation with partners in Canada and abroad; in October 2024 its team delivered SDG leadership training to the executive of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (see the 2024 Annual Report). Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) joined governments, scientists and NGOs at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025 as a UN Ocean Decade Implementing Partner.
UVic contributes to international collaboration on gathering and measuring the data that underpin the SDGs. It is a member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in Canada, which develops indicators and measurement systems to track SDG progress. ONC operates open-access observatories in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic and shares real-time and archived ocean data used by researchers worldwide. In early 2024 it worked with Spain's National Research Council (CSIC) and Spanish Antarctic programme to install the first year-round subsea observatory near the Antarctic Peninsula, which transmits data every 30 minutes to ONC's servers in BC and makes it freely available to researchers globally. The instruments measure Essential Ocean Variables defined by the Global Ocean Observing System, and ONC's Canadian data flows through the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System. In 2025, ONC was recognized as a UN Ocean Decade Implementing Partner for its work advancing global ocean observing.
Through international networks, UVic reviews comparative approaches and helps build best practice on delivering the SDGs. The UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, co-led from UVic, anchors the international Knowledge for Change (K4C) Consortium, which trains research hubs around the world in community-based methods for advancing the SDGs. CIFAL Victoria is one of only two Canadian centres in UNITAR's global CIFAL network, sharing SDG training methods and implementation practice among centres worldwide; in 2024 it added new university partnerships in Southeast Asia. ONC's International Science Advisory Board shaped the Antarctic observatory by adapting a real-time monitoring approach ONC had already tested in the Arctic, transferring a proven method to a new region and setting.
UVic collaborates with NGOs across three channels: student volunteering, joint research, and shared educational resources. The Environmental Law Centre Clinic, run with the non-profit ELC Society, has law students deliver thousands of hours of free legal research, advocacy and law-reform work each year for conservation groups, community organizations and First Nations (see the ELC's 2024–25 Annual Report). Through the WUSC Student Refugee Program, a student-run committee working with the Canadian non-profit World University Service of Canada sponsors and resettles refugee students at UVic each year. On the research side, Blue Carbon Canada partners UVic with environmental NGOs including Oceans North, the Kelp Rescue Initiative and Nature Trust to assess coastal carbon-storage capacity, and Dr. Sophia Carodenuto works with the Ghanaian NGO SEND-Ghana on sustainable cocoa livelihoods. Long-running staff and student volunteering with NGOs such as United Way and the Aga Khan Foundation Canada's World Partnership Walk rounds out these relationships.
Section 2: Education for the SDGs
UVic treats education for sustainability as a university-wide commitment, backed by dedicated programs and open to the wider community.
Sustainability learning is embedded across the university through the Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 2030 (CSAP), launched in 2022 and reviewed annually. CSAP states that climate and sustainability are integrated into UVic's academic curriculum in nearly every major field, and commits the university to developing new programs, courses and experiential learning that prepare the next generation of sustainability leaders. UVic's sustainability in education review found that, in the 2021–22 academic year, 92% of academic departments offered courses addressing sustainability themes mapped to the SDGs, giving students across disciplines broad access to sustainability learning.
UVic offers dedicated courses and degrees on sustainability and the SDGs at every level. The BSc in Climate Science, launched in 2023 and delivered jointly by the Department of Geography and the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, is accredited by UNITAR and is the first program on North America's west coast to be UN-accredited for delivering the SDGs; students who complete certified courses receive a credential co-signed by UNITAR. Through Continuing Studies, UVic runs UNITAR-CIFAL-certified programs open to learners at large, including the Transformative Climate Action Certificate and a micro-certificate in Climate Action Planning. These sit alongside minors, diplomas, and co-op options in environmental studies, geography and related fields.
UVic also delivers SDG education to the wider community. CIFAL Victoria provides open training to local authorities, community members and international partners on localizing and implementing the SDGs, reporting that it reached more than 1,400 participants in 2024 (University Affairs). For displaced people, the student-led WUSC committee sponsors refugee students to study at UVic each year. Continuing Studies makes UNITAR-CIFAL courses available to the public, including alumni, so learning on the SDGs is not limited to enrolled students. In 2023–24, UVic Co-op and Career Services partnered with CIFAL Victoria to give students on international placements the chance to earn UN accreditation for SDG-advancing work and lead a community activity in their host country.