African youth tasked to develop innovative solutions to address SDG challenges
THE United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Director for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Africa, Ms Ahunna Eziakonwa, has charged African youth to develop innovative solutions to address developmental challenges that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seek to tackle.
Ms Eziakonwa disclosed this during a Town Hall meeting with some key ecosystem players and the youth to exchange ideas and insights on the timbuktoo AgriTech Innovation Hub in Accra, last Friday.
The meeting was to engage and empower young innovators, climate activists, and entrepreneurs who are driving sustainable development in Ghana, and to explore opportunities for UNDP to support their initiatives and amplify their impact.
The UNDP Regional Director highlighted the need to harness new technologies to address challenges in various sectors of sustainable development, particularly in the area of health, environment and education.
She said the role of young people for economic growth and development was key and emphasised the importance of diversity and inclusion, by creating spaces for innovation by youth, women, PWDs and those from rural communities.
“Africa is rising and the possibilities lie in the hands of our youth to shape the future. And so young people must continue to follow their passion driven by experience to achieve the SDGs and the impact of the timbuktoo that we want to see,” she added.
Ms Eziakonwa underscored the need for actionable and scalable solutions, saying it was at the backdrop that the UNDP had introduced the bold initiative, ‘timbuktoo,’ as a revolutionary collaboration with governments and the private sector to scale up Africa’s startups with an ambitious goal of raising a billion dollars.
The initiative, she said aimed to bring capital to the best ideas from Africa’s youth and was targeted at achieving over 10,000 startups, to transform 100 million livelihoods and create 10 million dignified new jobs.
“Timbuktoo is here to build upon the foundations laid by key ecosystems, creating an environment that nurtures young and old initiatives. Our goal is to make the impossible a reality and to make that reality more evident,” she added.
Ms Eziakonwa called for more collaborative effort to enable the initiative materialise and assured of UNDP’s continuous support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)’s ecosystem growth especially under the UNDP’s integrated MSMEs Resilience Support Programme, aimed at providing business development and financial support for MSMEs across the country.
The UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana, Dr Angela Lusigi, said the initiative aligned with UNDP’s vision for a future-smart Africa that would transcend the old development paradigms.
“We are proud to work hand in hand with the private sector to embrace a bold new reality in which the future is driven by technology and innovation. Only exceptional achievements made by ambitious and talented young people supported by a vibrant ecosystem will move the needle in Africa and enable us to truly achieve our SDG targets,” she added
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
