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?
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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?
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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
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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!
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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.
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We have a secret group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/NAYDInternational/ to which
any team member is invited to join.
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The contact list of all teams and support can be
viewed on google
docs.
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We have three working groups progressing the
initiative – partnerships, capacity building and team development.
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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
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