UN wants youth involved in MDG’s

The One UN resident representative in Rwanda Lamin Momodou Manneh has said that in order to achieve the millennium development goals now and after the 2015 target year, youths need to be consulted and involved in the pursuit of a better world tomorrow.

Manneh said that when the MDG’s were presented by UN to the world, it was a shocking experience and unknown reality to most people, thus affecting its implementation in the early stages due to lack of sensitization, consultation and involvement of the people.

There were mistakes made when the MDG’s were introduced, but this time we (UN) want to see the youth take lead in implementing the MDG’s before 2015 and after. We are sure that by involving the youths, we can achieve better results” Manneh said.

He noted that Rwanda’s experience in attaining the MDG’s is a clear example that the youth of Rwanda can spearhead the same initiative, just like the government leaders have done today.

“The government of Rwanda is very supportive and it believes in empowering the youths. This is why we are also making a similar commitment to support youth initiatives, to the fullest, so that we can see social and economic change in Rwanda” he said.

Manneh was on October 22, 2013, speaking at the presentation of a report on the consultation findings, conducted by One UN and its partners, which were discussed to allow deeper discussion with specific youth groups in order to make the post-2015 development agenda possible in communities with the involvement of youths

The discussions were held under the theme: “Involving the voices of Rwandan youth in the post-2015 development agenda-Making young people’s actions count for a better world in 2015 and beyond”

The Rwandan youths, supported by UN partners in Rwanda, were also able, through art work, to demonstrate expressions of the views on what needs to be done to promote the implementation of MDG’s before and after 2015.

In 2012, more than 60 percent of the Rwandan population was aged between 0-24 years, the median age for women was 19.1 years and the population of young girls was slightly higher than that of boys, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).

Manneh noted, during the past years, Rwanda has achieved or is on the good path to achieving most of the MDGs central to Women and Girls’ Empowerment, including among others facilitating access to education for girls and boys (MDG 2), the promotion of gender equality (MDG 3), the reduction of maternal deaths (MDG 5) and child mortality (MDG 4), and the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG 6).

UN wants youth involved in MDG’s