100 days of #NAYDSDGS

Its 100 days since #NAYDSDGs was formed! Hard to believe how much water has gone under the bridge following that eventful meeting in January, a day when African youth development activists first proposed the idea of collaboration amongst Community Build Organisations to accelerate SDG implementation in rural African communities. So what has happened since then?

Ø  We have developed this BLOG – anyone who wants to write about the SDGs is invited to do so, and

we encourage your views!  What issues do you face? What successes have you had?

Ø  Development issues have been highlighted by:-

A series of live google hangouts   

#naydchat on twitter

‘In Conversation with’ on our INSPIRE BLOG - example

Use of the hashtag #naydsdgs in any related facebook and twitter message

Ø  The initiative has been recognised by UN DESA. To maintain this we have to deliver reports and maintain commitment to any milestones. Any country team that in turn fulfils its commitments to us will also be granted UN DESA partnership status. We have nearly 40 country teams fulfilling this commitment to date! 

Ø  We have a facebook chat where all the conversations since Jan 2 have been recorded. We hope this will keep going until December 2030, or preferably much earlier when our mission to empower rural communities with the SDGs  has been successfully completed! The transcripts of all the chat and meetings, together with all the documents relating to this initiative including the roadmap can be viewed on google drive.

   

Ø  We have a secret group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/NAYDInternational/ to which any team member is invited to join.

Ø  The contact list of all teams and support can be viewed on google docs.

Ø  We have three working groups progressing the initiative – partnerships, capacity building and team development.

Ø  We have group meetings normally the first Saturday of the month

What challenges do we face?

Many! Political freedom, war, wide ranging restrictions with internet and mobile access, development organisations are used to working independently and not in partnership, difficulty of getting mixed gender teams in some countries, widespread ignorance of the SDGs, translating existing community development activities into measurable Goals, no easy to understand monitoring or benchmark system to measure SDG progress in rural communities, many African governments have not made firm commitments to the Global Goals, different languages and dialects, keeping the teams together through financial limitations in the early stages whilst support is sought.  

Despite these issues we press on in the spirit of Ubuntu  - #NAYDSDGs will be successful as long as we keep holding hands and staying together.

Paul Shaw

#NAYDSDGs steering group leader