Implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by leaving no one behind

When the Westphalian district of Etteln in the municipality of Borchen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, won the 2024 Smart City Contest https://smartcities.ieee.org/ieee-smart-cities-contest  organized by the global engineering organization IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), it received widespread coverage in the German media.
In addition to laying fiber optic cables, Etteln also offers numerous digital services, such as a digital marketplace for ideas, projects, and services. The German version of the World Social Capital Monitor was recently presented there: https://crossiety.app/news_cards/1391211
Within just three days, 65 of the 850 residents registered in the app took part and rated their non-material social goods such as helpfulness, friendliness, and willingness to contribute to the community through taxes and local investments.

Ratings of Etteln on a scale of 10 (high) to 1 (low)

By German standards, these are very high values for what is therefore referred to as “social capital.” While the willingness to pay taxes is usually the highest value in Germany (question 4), helpfulness (8.3 points) and friendliness (8.2 points) are at the top of the list in Etteln.

This refutes classic prejudices about digitalization, such as that it promotes loneliness and destroys neighbourhoods. Or, conversely, where high social capital already exists, it is not threatened by digitalization. Local social media apps are therefore a meaningful contribution and expression of local social capital in any case.

As in other social media apps, some participants in Etteln tried to negatively influence the good rating by giving a low score ten times.

Such ratings are not taken into account in the evaluation. However, there was also a reason for this: “Newcomers have no chance of being integrated into this place! But the locals don’t want to admit it! Very stubborn. Very unfortunate.” This was a local say.

The globally unique opportunity to submit qualitative statements on trustyouplace.com means that even critical individual voices can be heard and taken into account. This form of social inclusion distinguishes the monitor from surveys in which only agreement or disagreement with prepared statements is asked for.
We therefore offered the IEEE to include the World Social Capital Monitor in the SMART Cities Contest. Why? The participation is very easy and happens by open access without registration. Cities with still a poor digital infrastructure may contribute digitally with a high local social capital. To assessing local social capital digitally may be the beginning of a SMART City development with low cost and at low threshold.

Cities willing to participate in the 2026 Smart Cities Contest of the IEEE can do so up to May 15^th 2026 here: https://smartcities.ieee.org/ieee-smart-cities-contest

The United Nations can no longer fulfill its task of monitoring compliance with the UN Charter worldwide. Members of the Security Council openly reject the Charter and set their own rules. Although a large majority of the 193 UN members adhere to the Charter, including the two most populous countries on earth, China and India, the UN can neither prevent nor end wars. Joint successes such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the ban on CFCs are urgently needed. In the video presented here, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute of Columbia University (USA) speaks at the Security Council of the United Nations.

We published 25+ studies and Policy Briefs in the UN: https://commons.ch/un-consultations. We delivered practical multilateral solutions such as the Mediterranean Peace Railway from Egypt to Syria crossing Gaza, Israel, Lebanon and the West-Bank. We started to offer citizens to score their shared and common social goods in all regions of conflict in 53 languages by open access on any cell-phone.

We will remain committed to the UN Goals and multilateralism as well when States cut the UN Budgets.