Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Call for Chapters: Sustainable Development Goals SDG18 Communication for All, to be edited by Jan Servaes and Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u. Deadline: 10 June, 2021.

The 2030 agenda for development or what is known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is perhaps the most ambitious agenda collectively agreed by 193 countries in human history…Yet, the framers of the 2030 agenda for development comprising key stakeholders from all sectors of all life forgot to dedicate one goal on the role of communication in achieving the SDGs. Such an oversight has attracted the attention of media and communication scholars alike, journalists and policy makers who understand that it is nearly impossible to achieve the SDGs without the articulation and embrace of the role of communication in development.

The COVID-19 pandemic which struck in 2019 has shown why communication is essential to human survival. The Pandemic which started as a health crisis and later metamorphosed into a full-blown economic crisis is now having a direct and indirect impact on the possibility of achieving each of the SDGs…A major lesson that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic was the role of communication in providing support for the survival of the global economy and society as a whole. The global community became more attached to the traditional and social media in order to understand the nature of the virus, how it spreads and measures needed to curtail the spread of the infection.

Call for Chapters: Global Handbook of Communications and Sustainable Development. To be edited by Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u. Deadline for submission of abstracts: 30 October 2018. NOTE: The extended deadline for the submission of abstracts is now 15 December 2018.

In 2015 several member states of the United Nations agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or what is known as the 2030 Agenda. The SDGs are expected to address major global challenges such as poverty alleviation, access to education, addressing inequality, climate change, improving access to quality healthcare, eradicating hunger, ensuring environmental sustainability, promoting innovation and infrastructural development among others.

To what extent are the intended beneficiaries of this ambitious plan aware of the 2030 Agenda? What is the role of the media in communicating the SDGs? Are the efforts to communicate the global goals reaching the target beneficiaries or do they end up as gathering of elites in major capitals with little to show for in terms of impact for the ordinary people? How can communication be utilized to address the challenges of achieving sustainable development? How is the digital media being utilized in communicating for sustainable development? How can communication serve as a tool for community empowerment in achieving sustainable development? These are some of the questions that the Global Handbook of Communications and Sustainable Development would seek to address. The book, expected to be published by Palgrave Macmillan seek contributions that provide critical analysis, empirical research, theoretical insights and practical examples on communication and sustainable development.