The Sustainable Development Goals, otherwise known as the Global Goals, build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets that the world committed to achieving by 2015. The MDGs, adopted in 2000, aimed at an array of issues that included slashing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and access to water and sanitation. Enormous progress has been made on the MDGs, showing the value of a unifying agenda underpinned by goals and targets. Despite this success, the indignity of poverty has not been ended for all.
Background
The Just adopted Sustainable Development Goals by far had more acceptances when compared to the Millennium Development Goal. The fact that more than 197 world leaders came together to agree on the adoption of the proposal indeed underscore the optimism that greeted its birth.
Back home in Nigeria, 5 out of 10 youths asked said they have had about the SDGs (this represent up to half of the urban youth population) against 1 in every 25 during the MDGs which are just about which is just about 7% of the urban youth population. One will readily agree that the ignorance of the young people about the MDGs and its attendance benefit might have been instrumental to its failure in this part of the world. On the other hand the knowledge of the SDGs and its benefits as well as the knowhow of how it can be made to work will definitely go a long way to determine its short term and long term success. To this end it will be important to empower young people of all background to make a viable contribution to the working of the SDGs.
The Akwa Ibom SDGs Youth Network ProjectThe aim of the network is to create a web of social change makers from all part of the State who will be empowered to individually and as collectively
• See to the implementation of the SDGs in a personal way
• Pressure the policy makers at all levels to implement the SDGs
• Monitor all projects demand for accountability from the leadership
Operational Strategy
Everyone is expected to start something small. For instance turning off the light bulb at home and also reaching out to the neighbours to do so in favour of Climate change and energy conservation. This activity if documented can become a worldwide phenomenal soon.
Bring young people working around the Goals from all around state, nation and the world together to attend capacity building in workshops, Conferences. The Capacity building will empower the young people in the following way:
1. Waking participants up from within
2. Expose them to possibilities and Ideas around SDGs
3. Lecture them in civic participation, social entrepreneur and civic engagement etc.
4. Segmentation: personal discovery and specialisation (help each participants discover the right issue to take on)
5. Commissioning of activities and secretariat set up (Everyone will have the privilege of pitching his/her proposed activities to a panel who will help structure it and mentor him. State Chapters will be formed and the national secretariat will be put in place)
