SDG Challenge 2024!

A thrilling one-day event that brings together UNSW students and the Poverty & Inequality Partnership to solve real-world sustainability challenges.

In this exciting challenge, you will have the opportunity to use your skills, creativity and knowledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to solve real problems that affect our local community. From brainstorming to implementation, you will work alongside fellow students and experts in the field to turn challenges into solutions in just one day.

But that's not all - the best part of the SDG Challenge 2024 is the chance to win great prizes! Each challenge has a $2000 first prize and a $1000 second prize, with an additional $500 people's choice prize voted by the audience.

Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to make a real impact and win big.

See last year's

Poverty & inequality Partnership Challenge

The challenge statement will be sent to participants after registration.

We know we must radically transform how we live on this planet to prosper peacefully. Day to day, it’s a prospect that can seem remote. Only the actions of a motivated many can ensure we turn ambitions for sustainability - captured in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals - into a practical reality.

That’s your mission through the challenge below.

Discover the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
You can select one or several goals as a framework to solve a problem for our partners.
Australia is a signatory to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The first of these goals is “No poverty”. However, Australia has the 15th highest poverty rate out of the 34 wealthiest countries in the OECD – higher than the average for the OECD; higher than the UK, Germany and New Zealand. People living in poverty in Australia often miss out on essentials such as food or a roof over their heads. Children living in poverty often miss out on items such as school excursions.
The Poverty and Inequality Partnership’s 2022 Poverty in Australia Snapshot found that there are 3.3 million people (13.4%) living below the poverty line of 50% of median income, including 761,000 children (16.6%). In dollar figures, the poverty line works out to $489 a week for a single adult and $1,027 a week for a couple with 2 children.
Poverty in Australia 2022: A snapshot
The solutions to poverty remain clear. The evidence supports the following policies to reduce poverty:
• Lift the lowest income support payments (including Youth Allowance and JobSeeker Payment) to at least pension levels to shield people of working age and their families from poverty when they cannot obtain enough paid work.
• Introduce and improve supplements to cover essential costs above and beyond basic income support, including the extra costs of sole parenthood and disability.
• Commit to full employment based on targets which guarantee there are enough jobs and paid working hours overall for people who need them.
• Invest in effective employment services to end the entrenched economic exclusion of people such as those unemployed long-term, First Nations communities, people with disability and older people; and to improve access to decent jobs and careers for people entering or returning to paid work including young people, parents and carers.
• Build more social housing and increase Rent Assistance to improve the supply of secure and affordable homes and help those on the lowest incomes with their largest living expense.
Poverty in Australia 2023 - Who is affected

Challenge support: Mentors and Judges

Chris Martin (Mentor & Judge)

Chris is a Senior Research Fellow in the City Futures Research Centre. Chris's research interests are in rental housing and housing affordability. Chris was previously the Senior Policy Officer of the Tenants' Union of NSW, and is the author of the 'Tenants' Rights Manual' (4th edition), the leading text on tenancy law and policy for tenants and community workers in New South Wales. He is also a past Chair of Shelter NSW.
John Engeler (Mentor)

John joined Shelter NSW as CEO in early 2020, having been involved in the formation, development and operation of Social, Affordable & Specialist housing for most of his professional life. He has a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and has undertaken post-graduate legal studies. Having spent a number of years in the private, public and community sectors, he especially enjoys the opportunity to contribute to innovative housing responses, delivering solutions to those for whom the market falls short.
Cathy Callaghan (Mentor)

Cathryn joined Shelter NSW in April 2020 with most recent experience as a Chief of Staff to a NSW MP & Shadow Minister located in the multicultural heart of south western Sydney. Over a career spanning thirty years, Cathryn has held senior private sector executive HR and change management roles. Cathryn holds a Bachelor of Economics degree as well as a Master of Commerce (Organisational Behaviour) with personal interests in community and political engagement, local government and sound public policy.
Carla Treloar (Mentor)

Carla is a Scientia Professor with the Centre for Social Research and Health and the Social Policy Research Centre.
Andrew Kos (Mentor)

Andrew is the Senior Policy Officer at Mission Australia working in the Policy, Advocacy and Government Relations team. Mission Australia has a nation-wide service delivery presence in areas such as homelessness, social housing, employment services and other community-based programs. He has a background in social work and development studies, and has previously worked in NSW Government.
Kylie Valentine (Judge)

Kylie Valentine is Director of the Social Policy Research Centre and the Centre for Social Research in Health. She conducts research on what policy is, how human services are delivered, and how social worlds are made up in policy and practice. She is very interested in the sociology of knowledge and the history of ideas, and how they can be used to understand social inequalities. Kylie also conducts evaluation research in housing and homelessness policy.
Cassandra Goldie (Judge)

Cassandra Goldie is CEO of ACOSS and Adjunct Professor with UNSW Sydney. With public policy expertise in economic, social and environmental issues, civil society, social justice and human rights, Cassandra has represented the interests of people who are disadvantaged, and civil society generally, in major national and international processes as well as in grassroots communities
Stephen Rutter (Mentor)

Stephen Rutter is a Proud Tebrakunna man from Lutruwita. He aims to grow organisations by thinking differently. Stephen is Founder of The Scale Institute and Head of Community at Neutopia. Read more
Yenni Tim (Mentor)

cDr. Yenni Tim is an Associate Professor at the School of Information Systems and Technology Management, UNSW Business School. As a researcher, she addresses practical challenges at the nexus of digital capacity, resilience, and societal progress. Through intervention-based research methodologies, Yenni supports end users in designing and implementing digital technologies effectively in response to organisational and societal shocks. Yenni is also the Founding Director of the UNSW Sandbox Program, a platform that facilitates tripartite collaboration between practitioners, academics, and students, to co-design solutions for societal challenges.
Yuvisthi Naidoo (Mentor)

Yuvisthi Naidoo, Senior Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre, is an internationally recognised expert on the measurement and understanding of living standards. Her research program has direct policy relevance to improve the lives of socially and economically disadvantaged people. As an experienced mixed-method researcher, Yuvisthi’s projects have provided an evidence-base across a broad range of critical social policy issues, including poverty and inequality; deprivation and social exclusion; costs of living and well-being.