Utilise SDGs as a framework to address youth agenda: Experts

Experts have said that youth should be involved beyond passive consultation processes and be encouraged to provide inputs to local and national SDG accountability mechanisms actively.

They came up with the statement at a programme titled 'Youth, SDG Accountability and the Voluntary Local Review: Situating Bangladesh's Experience within the Global Context' jointly organised by the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh and ActionAid Bangladesh on Thursday, said a press release.

Although the youth at the national and local level was considered an important part of implementation and accountability in Sustainable Development Agenda-2030, they have not been effectively involved.

Rather than solely focusing on skills for employability, youth-based skills training programmes deployed by both government and non-state actors should also involve training to collect data, through modern ICT solutions, relevant to the protection of youth's well-being and rights, said the speakers.

"The data collection skills are needed, and ICT will work to leverage and enhance them. Moreover, creation of spaces to not just share ideas but to document processes of implementing SDGs," said Estefania Charvet, Head of Programmes, Southern Voice Network.

Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, pointed out that whole society inclusion should be a major goal that can be done via data and information sharing, capacity building, political commitment, environment, and others.

"We need to bring on board, particularly young women and men, to understand the perspectives and to think of the young generation across the globe," she said.

A keynote presentation was delivered by Najeeba Mohammed Altaf, programme associate of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) mentioned that, despite the clear importance shown to youth within the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development itself, this importance was not reflected in the extent of youth participation documented in either the 2017 or 2020 VNR published by Bangladesh.

"The biggest issue is regarding the data gap and access to IT and internet among the youth. We also interacted with youth organisations and it was also inclusive," said Suwaiba Yakubu-Jibrin, Director of Programme, ActionAid Nigeria.

Sesheeni Selvaratnam, International Programme and Policy Lead, ActionAid Denmark, said SDGs need to be accessible to locals in a language they can understand.

"Data, information and protecting civic space in the post-pandemic period needs to be focused on when the state may take a much more authoritarian approach in the upcoming days. In the absence of a robust global governance structure, this is not only an issue for the nation but also global in many ways," said Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, convenor of Citizen's Platform for SDGs and Bangladesh and Distinguished Fellow of CPD.

The dialogue was participated by a selected group of non-government organisations working on youth issues, UN representatives and country experts from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America as well as international development partners and representatives of the media.