The World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development (WED) is an official International Day proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) General Conference in November 2019. This was based on a proposal from the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO).
WED is an opportunity to celebrate engineering and the contribution of the world’s engineers for a better, more sustainable world. It was celebrated for its fifth time in March 2025 as an international celebration promoting the critical role of engineers and engineering to achieve a better and more sustainable world.
From the 2025 edition, WFEO partners with St James House to run a global campaign bringing industrial partners and all kinds of innovators to join the celebration and effectively demonstrate the great range of how engineers contribute to delivering each of the United Nations SDGs.
WFEO and St James House co-operate worldengineeringday.net, a global hub for featuring local and global events, key messages, institutional, academic and corporate testimonies.
+50 companies have partnered with the 2025 celebration. Visit this page to find out more.
This year’s theme was “Shaping a Sustainable Future Through Engineering” and the main event was celebrated in Paris on March 4, 2025.
World Engineering Day main event
The Conference, titled “Unleashing the Power of Engineers to advance the SDGs”, took place at UNESCO headquarters.
A live stream of the day’s flagship event, featuring all the day’s main events, news, and debates can be viewed on the below video
The day was attended by representatives from government, industry, and the scientific community, and featured a series of discussions about engineering’s critical role in sustainable development.
The day’s highlights included:
- Welcome remarks
- Keynote lecture
- High-level Segment: Innovative Engineering: Shaping Policies for a Sustainable Future
- Hackathon Winners Announcement
- Panel Discussion on Empowering Africa: Digital Transformation and Capacity Building
- Fireside chat on Breaking Barriers: Inspiring Stories and Overcoming Challenges by Women in Engineering
- Panel on Powering Progress: Sustainable Solutions for Energy and Infrastructure
- Closing addresses
The programme of this day is available on this page.
WFEO President Mustafa Shehu addressing the Opening Ceremony
Hackathon
The WED Hackathon is an initiative brought by WFEO, in partnership with UNESCO and Engineers Without Borders International (EWB-I), powered and supported by The Big Creative.
The World Engineering Day (WED) Hackathon is a unique annual competition inviting participants to develop solutions to global issues that bring us closer to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Participants work teams to create a short video outlining their solution. This year, the challenges were based on UN Sustainable Development Goal 1: No Poverty and winners were revealed during the main event.
The WED judges have selected the top three winners (page available in this link), while the public vote crowned a fan-favorite. With over 3,000 participants from 90+ countries, the competition showcased bold solutions to poverty, from climate-smart innovations to digital empowerment. Join us as we celebrate their achievements and hear from our winners, judges, and partners.
Announcement of the WED Hackathon results by WFEO Past President Dr Marlene Kanga
The project ManufacturingBox, from the University of Twente, Netherlands, has been selected as the WED Hackathon Winner.
You can see the announcement of the Hackathon winners by WFEO Past President in this video.
Global events
There have been dozens of WED official celebrations all around the world, from conferences and webinars to fun runs and social events.
This acknowledged and illustrated the key role and the contributions of engineering to sustainable development, to attract the public to support engineering development and to increase the social recognition of engineers.
You can see the WED events on this page.
Closing remarks by WFEO President-Elect Seng Chuan Tan
For more information:
World Engineering Day main event live broadcast
World Engineering Day main event program
Closing remarks by WFEO President-Elect Seng Chuan Tan
World Engineering Day Hackathon
World Engineering Day on the UNESCO website
MAR
2025