The role of youth in archieving Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also known as Global Goals for Sustainable Development were birthed from the millennium development goals as part of the UN General Assembly commonly called the 2030 Agenda –Transforming our World.

Many Ugandans are not familiar with the SDGs and those that have heard of them picture a complex, international project meant only for those in the United Nations or government to implement and yet the ideas, inspirations, aspirations, considerable energy and vision of the youth are essential for the continuing development of society.

Uganda has the youngest population only second to Niger with about 48% of the population below 15 years of age. The implication of this is a high dependence burden coupled with an urgent need for the country to create jobs for the count fastest growing labor force in the world, this calls for an urgent  need to mobilize the  youth to  play a more active role in the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda through; Raising more awareness and engaging the youth in debates about the these  Goals and their targets,especially  among marginalized groups of young people and that includes students and their peers.these should include facilitators, youth formations  among others  to encourage them participate in the on-going interventions and monitoring the implementation  of these set goals, building the capacity – skills of young people, students, teachers, youth clubs/formations to engage in activities that will help deliver the effective implematation of these goals.

Through SDG4;which puts more emphasis on quality education for all, i suggest the need to Include these SDGs in the curriculum, this should will help create mandetory awareness for the goals especially among the younger generation. this drives me to wareness campaigns for the SDGs, which i think are  equally  very important,with the  youth playing a lead role ,as for the Gender equality goal ,it still calls  for women leaders to mentor young women so that they can be able to realize their careers and also compete for opportunities with their male counterparts.

We also need to focus on; adolescent health and youth friendly health service provision, demystifying the myth that young people don’t care about energy and their environment.In the current ugandan context, barriers and the role of young people in realizing SDG5 which stands for reduced inequality(

gini coefficient for income inequality) is at 0.45 which is worse than Tanzania 0.36, and Burundi 0.33, but better than Kenya 0.48 and Rwanda 0.51.This can be a starting point for the young people to closely monitor as we actively participate in the health programs and  campaighns, if we are to improve the beauty of these statistics

 The previous wars and civil unrests left the youth in vulnarable situations of being used as the child soldiers, being targeted by terrorists exremeists,and also being used by political parties to promote their agendas. This paused a threate on  SDG16 which stands for promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development. Its our role as young people to be aware about such avenues and actively resist them for purpurses of attaining this goal.

It is therefore imperative that youth be sensitized about their role in achieving SDGs through taking advantage of youth focused platforms like social media campaigns, building capacity for women and youth, use of conventional and unconventional means in implementing SDGs and involving the youths in SDGs plans among others.

Nakanwagi Halima
Economic Hub Uganda
P.O Box 1337, Kampala- Uganda | Tel +256779373114/+256703744999 |
 Email:economichubuganda@gmail.com|nakanwagihalimah@gmail.com ;