The NGO World Foundation

The NGO World Foundation conducted session on “SDGs & Role of Youth” for CUST VIS Program 2019.

The NGO World Foundation conducted a session on “SDGs & Role of Youth”

How are young people contributing to the SDGs? Youth can contribute substantially towards the SDGs in the following ways:

  1. Helping deliver programs which are responsive and attuned to real needs and often in ways that benefit in terms of economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and sustainability.
  2. They can seek out partnerships, network and build alliances, both within and between generations. They identify with and act as connectors or “mobilisers”—in person, online and in public and private spheres. There is an untapped role that young people may identify with in terms of communicating the message of the SDGs, contributing towards their monitoring and holding governments to account, as well as mobilising others to contribute as active citizens. This has big implications for SDG 17 on Partnerships, as well as the “Leave no one behind” agenda.
  3. Their ability to influence their parents, their communities and local and national government. Young people don’t just want to be peer educators—they can be highly effective educators, advisors, and managers across generations. For example, in terms of achieving SDG 5 on Gender, young people are already influencing the views of their parents, their teachers, and the wider community. But this is not always acknowledged, let alone tracked.
  4. Their capabilities to contribute towards development policies or legislation that supports the achievement of all 17 SDGs—with particular regard to imagining what might happen in the future (Diagram 3) and envisioning how national policy development, implementation, and tracking might be done differently

By engaging youth in these under-acknowledged and hidden roles much more directly, visibly and respectfully, the SDGs could receive a strong and much-needed pulse of youthful energy towards their achievement.

By taking an informed and active role in accountability mechanisms, young people’s current mistrust of politics, private-sector operations, and civic institutions can be reduced. Given the opportunity, young people—especially youth-led groups and organizations operating at the grassroots—can be a powerful force in safeguarding transparency and accountability. Such groups are more likely to be responsive to the needs of the youth cohort they represent and offer greater possibilities to unleash the creativity and innovation of youth.

Keeping these situation and importance of the role of youth in promoting SDGs, in mind, The NGO World Foundation conducted a session on “SDGs and Role of Youth” with students and volunteers from Capital University of Science & Technology (CUST) under its VIS program 2019.

Session conducted by Mr. Sajjad Nayyer, Manager Resource Mobilization, TNW. He gave detail orientation on MDGs and SDGs. The session consists of Group discussion, Group Work, Presentation and Q&A.

Students also share their activity plans in link with SDGs.

TNW has launched its Volunteer In Service (VIS) program from the last 02 years, in which university students participate and get knowledge of the social and development sector.

Mr. Zafar Iqbal, Chairman The NGO World has a vision and strong believe that the most powerful force for development is youth. We can make a huge difference by engaging them in our social activities, planning, and designing projects.

This session is a continuation of his vision.

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