Nigerian Youth, instead of anxiously waiting for a presidential debate, here is something that is much more important and will determine the world and the country's course for the next 15 years and beyond. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which will be replacing the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), will be voted on in September 2015 at the United Nations General Assembly and subsequently go into effect on January 1, 2016. These goals bring forth ills that plague the world and need to be mitigated or eliminated. It started with the MDGs, which were implemented in 2000 with an expiration date of December 31, 2015. The SDGs came about in 2012 at the 20th anniversary of the Rio meeting in 1992 with an outcome document titled, the future we want.
"The Rio+20 outcome document, The future we want, inter alia, set out a mandate to establish an Open Working Group (OWG) to develop a set of sustainable development goals for consideration and appropriate action by the General Assembly at its 68th session," at the United Nations.The SDGs are currently being negotiated at the UN by member countries, civil society, and other stakeholders. Currently, there are 17 goals and 169 targets as proposed by the OWG. Like the MDGs, eradicating poverty and hunger is one of the most important goals. With 80% of Nigeria's population living in poverty to extreme poverty, this goal is vital to the country. As a member of the G77 + China, Nigeria is a key player in the negotiations and needs it's people to know what is going on and to influence whatever decisions are being made. A High-Level Stocktaking Event took place in September of 2014 to review the proposed sustainable development goals and to get further input and suggestion by civil society, business and other stakeholders. The event was summarized into the Secretary General's Synthesis Report on the Post-2015 Agenda, which was put together by Mrs. Amina J. Mohammed. Mrs. Mohammed is the Assistant Secretary General, Special Advisor on Post-2015 Development Planing. She is also a Nigerian. There are negotiations and decisions being brokered at a much higher level that affects daily lives and futures, which trickles down to the local level and even influences who runs for the position of president, for any given country. The world is no longer operating within the confines of individual countries. Now is the time to start thinking globally but acting locally and only the youth can make that happen. Tough questions need to be asked and explanations need to be given for current negotiations being made on the behalf of the country. Make it a personal mission to know what is going on in the world instead of the four corners of the country. The information is out there, however, it is up to citizens to access it and engage in intellectual conversations and debate, followed by demands to leaders on how they should represent the interest of the country.
Related Sites:
OWG Proposal for Sustainable Development Goals
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgsproposal
Secretary General's Synthesis Report
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/700&Lang=E
Millennium Development Goals
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
All the Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform documents can be found on: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5527SR_advance%20unedited_final.pdf.
Calendar of events for all the intergovernmental negotiations at the UN and globally.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/index.php?menu=1634
Additional Sites to follow:
http://www.action2015.org/
http://www.beyond2015.org/
http://www.unngls.org/
