Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda in Spain: an analysis of the effects of communication campaigns and public knowledge

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations announced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda, which is a plan aimed at improving the lives of people worldwide, and protecting our planet as well. In 2018, the Spanish government made a commitment to ensuring that the country’s entire population would be aware of this initiative by 2020. The aim of this research is to measure the effectiveness of the communication campaigns focused on this issue, which were carried out between 2015 and 2022, and to discover the characteristics of the profiles who have very limited knowledge about this issue, as well as those who have expert knowledge, along with the channels that have been the leaders in disseminating this information. The methodology is based on a survey of a representative sample of the Spanish population (n=400). The key findings show that the majority of citizens say they have very little knowledge about the issue. Furthermore, although the diffusion frequency on dissemination channels is very low, the interviewees admit to having gained more knowledge through the mass media and institutional advertising than through social networks and corporate communication. In conclusion, it has been confirmed that the campaigns carried out to date have proven to be ineffective and/or insufficient.