The Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre’s Youth focused initiative – The Naija Youth Sustainability Forum held a webforum in partnership with the Youth Sustainable Development Network (YSDN) themed, “Innovating for Impact; Youth at the Forefront of Sustainable Development,” to mark the International Youth Day themed, “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways to Sustainable Development,” on Monday, August 12, 2024.
The web forum’s conversations focused on how youths can leverage partnerships, get relevant training and connect with like minds beyond borders through exchange programmes to get the skills, knowledge and competencies needed to unlock creative economic and social value that will help contribute to Africa’s socio-economic development. The panel session dwelt on the challenges stalling the progress of the youths and the many ways they can navigate these challenges to become change makers on the continent.
The welcome remarks were delivered by Oreva Atanya, Director, LBS Sustainability Centre. She welcomed all participants, and reaffirmed Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre’s (LBSSC’s) commitment to creating the enabling environment for youths to build capacity and collaboration needed to create transformation on the continent. She said, “The youths are not just the future but the present. Looking at the demographic data, the youths are becoming more and more the dominant population, while we the youths may not have caused a lot of the challenges seen on the continent, we have the unique opportunity of being the generation that can do something about it.”
The keynote speaker, Omo Kehinde Ayeni, Executive Director, LEAP Africa, painted a picture of successes driven by young people on the continent and charged the youths to forge a clear vision for impact. She said, “The International Youth Day was set aside by the United Nations to celebrate the contributions of young people globally. The choices we make today will determine the future we have tomorrow. We must have a creative mindset and ask the right questions to lead sustainable development that fosters economic, social and environmental equity. Young people must be more than a number and a statistic, we must think of how their creativity can guarantee economic development.” She added, “Once the creativity, focus, mindset, energy, and power of young people meet and align with the right people, policies, resources and opportunities, then we will have a more inclusive continent.”
(L-R: Omo Kehinde Ayeni, Executive Director, LEAP Africa; Oreva Atanya, Director, LBS Sustainability Centre and Anthony Tuedon, Associate, LBS Sustainability Centre and Naija YSF Lead)
The panel session comprising Ugonna Achebe, Executive Director, Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN); Damilola Balogun, Founder, Youth Sustainable Development Nigeria (YSDN); Adebayo Joseph, Director, Programmes and Operations, United Nations Sustainable Development Sustainable Network (UN SDSN); and Stella Uwaechue, Investor Relations Analyst, Chapel Hill denham, panel moderator and Affiliate, LBS Sustainability Centre, spoke on the challenges, and opportunities the youths can harness to build creativity and innovation that contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the continent. They advocated for capacity development, continuity of government policies, updated curriculums, volunteering, collaboration, action, access to funding, and avenues like youth parliaments for young people to express their talent, leverage tech and build innovation.
There was also a case presentation by Tolulope Gbenro, Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, YSDN, who spoke on the Coolcycle Project. The CoolCycle Project repurposes parts from disused generators to create affordable, energy-efficient solar-powered cooling systems, addressing generator waste and cooling needs to transform waste into wealth for Nigerian farmers. Overall, all the speakers asked the youths to get their priorities clear, leverage their strengths and peculiarities as well as collaboration to sell value to their world and chart a course of action that leads to impact in their respective focus areas.
You can watch the video playback of the webinar here.
The Youth Sustainable Development Network is a youth focused nonprofit championing the cause for an expansive mindset development, essential in distilling and advancing SDG knowledge in the younger generation for the prompt realisation of the 2030 Agenda. For more information about the initiatives of YSDN, visit: https://ysdn.org/about/
Lagos Business School is Africa’s leading management education institution and the LBS Sustainability Centre is a leading knowledge centre that brings together the theory and practice on business and sustainability for the advancement of performance and development outcomes. For more information about the initiatives, programmes and upcoming events by the Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre, please contact sustainabilitycentre@lbs.edu.ng. Together we can work towards greater social impact for better development outcomes on the continent. See our programmes at https://lbssustainabilitycentre.edu.ng/training
