Youth as Changemakers: Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals

George Okello, Kenya: Poverty is more than a lack of money. It can take away confidence and hope. I have experienced poverty firsthand, and I know how deeply it can affect the way people see themselves and their future. When people are excluded from education or even employment,their talents can go unrealized and communities can become more vulnerable to exploitation, crime, trafficking and instability.

This is why Sustainable Development Goal 1 — No Poverty is so important. The United Nations has set an ambitious goal: to end poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Young people should not be expected to end poverty all by themselves. Governments, businesses, international organizations and communities all have a role to play. But young people can bring something especially powerful to the SDG agenda: energy, imagination, entrepreneurship and the willingness to challenge assumptions about what is possible.

We can already see examples of stories from challenges to opportunities.

Take Linoh Lokirik, a young entrepreneur from Losuk Center in Kenya, who saved KES 80,000 (USD 620) through livestock trading and used his savings to establish an agro-input shop combined with a cybercafé. His business sells animal feed and fertilizer while also providing printing and online application services to his community.

A successful small business can create income, provide services, support farmers and demonstrate to other young people that they can build opportunities within their own communities and thousands of initiatives like this can begin to change an economy from the ground up.

In Colorado, Growing Up Boulder gives children and young people opportunities to participate in conversations about the design and development of their city. This demonstrates another important principle: young people should not simply inherit the communities we build. They can help us build them.

Projects such as Cultiva Youth Project, where teenagers participate in urban farming,youths are also encouraged to participate in project administration, public relations and community education as well as garden work and community service projects and also in  Milk and Honey Farm, where young people help grow food for people experiencing food insecurity, they grow over 4000 lbs of vegetables.This examples show how youth participation can connect several Sustainable Development Goals at once — reducing poverty, strengthening food security, building skills and creating more sustainable communities.

Youth groups and cooperatives can help young entrepreneurs pool resources, share knowledge and gain access to capital without becoming dependent on exploitative or extremely expensive lenders.

Young people can also participate in the administration and civic life of their towns, cities, counties and countries. They can advocate for better education, greater access to skills and training, fair opportunities for employment and policies that make entrepreneurship easier.

In agriculture, young people can become leaders in climate-smart farming, using new technologies and techniques to produce food while conserving water and protecting the environment.

And perhaps no generation has ever had greater ability to collaborate across borders.This is because the world has become an online village. A young person with a good idea can learn from someone thousands of miles away, find partners in another country, build an online business or launch a crowdfunding campaign that attracts supporters from around the world.

We should stop thinking about young people only as beneficiaries of development programs; deserving charity and patronage.Young people should be partners in development.What if we give them education, skills,a voice and maybe access to technology?And most importantly, give them the chance to turn their own ideas into action.

Poverty remains one of humanity’s greatest challenges. For those living through it, statistics cannot adequately describe the experience. Poverty can make the future seem impossibly distant.

But poverty is not difficult to solve if we all join hands together.

Imagine the world as a four-legged chair. When one leg is broken, the whole chair becomes unstable. Extreme poverty weakens not only those experiencing it but the societies and economies around them. Restoring that leg makes the entire structure stronger.

The Sustainable Development Goals give us a destination. Young people can help us find new paths toward it.Every enterprise started, every young person educated, every community garden planted, every cooperative formed, every policy improved and every young voice included in public decisions is another step forward.

Yes, youth can make an impact.

This journey of many miles begins with just one step.We do not have to change the whole world at once. We can start by changing one life at a time—through education, mentorship, skills, internships and entrepreneurship. As we climb this ladder of positive change,we have to start from the bottom going upwards. Are you ready to climb this ladder of positive impact and become a change maker? Let's start with our local communities.

Further Reading

1. https://www.growingupboulder.org/about-us.html?utm_source

2. https://www.snv.org/update/rural-youth-building-resilient-livelihoods-in-kenya?utm_source

3.https://growinggardens.org/cultiva/?utm_source

4.https://www.boulderjcc.org/milkandhoneyfarm