Let the youth participate in our SDG journey

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came about as a result of countries around the world wanting to "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The promise of guaranteeing the rights of our future generations to meet their needs is one that ties up the idea of "youth" to the SDGs in a fundamental way.

The reason behind putting "youth" in quotation marks and calling it an idea is because the future encompasses vast swathes of time, pulling in stakeholders in droves, inflating the number of people who find themselves crowded under the umbrella of a "future generation." This overflowing nature of the basket of stakeholders when it comes to the SDGs is more than what political leaders of our time are willing to work with – it's probably more than what development leaders want to think about. We have seen that in the slow pace of reaction to the climate crisis; we have seen that in the one major criticism of the SDGs – that they fail to ignore local context. Discussions on the SDGs often veer towards the exclusion of marginalised communities from mainstream economic activities, thereby excluding them from the fruits of development. None of these things bode well for the promise of not compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

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The youth deserve better from us

We only need to look at the SDGs themselves to understand why youth mobilisation is important. The term "climate crisis," for example, evokes vastly different reactions among age groups, understandably so. For the generations who have already lived their lives surrounded by greenery, breathing non-toxic air, the crisis is often still a thing of the future. But the 20-year-olds who were born in Dhaka, whose lungs have only known polluted air, clearly care more about the climate. Climate Action (SDG 13) means vastly different things to the oldster and the youngster, and I think it's clear that the younger person cares more about sustainability. The future is tied to the youth's life and existence, and that sort of engagement in a goal must be utilised to better the lives of future generations.

Let's consider Gender Equality (SDG 5), and the drastically varied expectations of it through generations. Capturing the shifting tides of feminism and the new ideas it includes with every new wave is a challenge, but it's a challenge that can only be faced if young women are not only allowed to have a say, but be given the space to implement their ideas. The constant shift in gender roles across generations must be understood to achieve SDG 5. Add to this the layer of complexity that comes with the varied opinions on gender equality in different regions across the world, or even different regions in the same country, and it's clear that the challenge of achieving gender equality will take a lot of hard work and participation from young people at the grassroots. For these young people, this shift in understanding isn't new; it's a lived reality, and this perspective must be taken into account if sustainable gender equality is the goal.

Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8) is an interesting goal because of the direct nature of its relationship to youth empowerment. The youth cannot be empowered if they can't fend for themselves and survive the economic realities of the times they operate in. But discussions on this SDG have the tendency to shift towards a skill gap or the mismatch in the supply of skills to what employers demand. These ideas are fundamentally unfair to the youth, who spend roughly two decades of their lives in an education system built by the older generation, only to come out of it and hear that almost everything they have learnt is outdated. The youth is expected to participate and bring their fresh ideas to the table, but to get to this table, they are being asked to acquire skills many of them don't have the resources to acquire. Without the skills, there is no decent work, and as the SDG suggests, decent work and economic growth comes hand in hand. The lack of skills and resources is akin to the chicken and the egg problem, and employers, educators, and policymakers need to come together to break this cycle of misery. What should follow is a youth demographic with the right skills, or the opportunity to acquire them.

But that is not the end of the story. Youth empowerment cannot be limited to the idea of youth participation or just the extension of opportunities to youngsters. While everyone agrees that the youth is vital to the achievement of sustainable goals, they must also understand that what was decent work a generation ago may not be decent work today. It must be ensured that the youth of today have enough – enough to look after themselves, and enough to be able to care for the generations that come after. If a young individual is expected to traverse the rungs of power and get to the top before they can enforce change, their youth will vanish by the time they get there. They need to be given the opportunity to care about the future now, while they are still young, because caring for the future so far has not been humankind's strong suit.

On September 1, Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), organised a conference on "SDGs and Youth in Bangladesh: Present Perspectives and Future Outlook." The event was organised in association with the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), ActionAid, and Plan International, among other notable organisations. Such conferences are important in highlighting why youth involvement is vital for the SDGs, and to ensure that the youth is equipped with what it needs to take this world into a future that is prosperous for all.

Azmin Azran is editor-in-charge of SHOUT, The Daily Star's weekly youth supplement.