KATHMANDU, Oct 8: Asia-Pacific Peace and Development Service Alliance (APPDSA), a leadership Workshop and Youth Forum on Sustainable Development was held on Saturday at World Trade Center, Tripureshwor.
Convening highlights service, volunteerism and youth engagement, the forum aimed at developing the Moral and Innovative Leadership amongst the participants empowering them to take ownership and leadership in Sustainable Development Goals.
An initiation to enhance knowledge and strategies with regard to youth participation in sustainable development goals, the forum aimed to bring various organizational level dignitaries for discussion on various issues. On the occasion, more than 150 individuals (presenter and participants) representing various organizations participated and exchanged ideas.
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Out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the forum held a panel discussion on Quality Education (SGD 4), Clean Water and Sanitation (SGD 6), Affordable And Clean Energy (SGD 6), Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SGD 16) and Partnership for Goals (SGD 17).
The program had three extensive sessions, Global Leadership Workshop, Sustainable Development Topic and Panelist Discussion and Idea Pitching Session. The sessions were designed to equip the youth to transition their learning associated with enhancing individual leadership capacity to team innovation capacity and further extend it into open innovation environments.
Ram Rohan Pant, chairperson of Global Peace Foundation Nepal, welcomed everyone and formally started Leadership Workshop and Youth Forum on SDGs-2017. The special remark was presented by Civil Entrepreneur of Code for Nepal Nikesh Balami, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ram Prasad Thapaliya, and Executive Board Member of National Youth Council, Bhawana Bhatta. Similarly, the key note address was presented by Vice Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Prof Dr Jibaraj Pokharel.
“In order to encourage youths, several creative ways will be exercised leading to a competition ensuring practical measures for achieving sustainable development goals,” said Ram Rohan Pant.
Meanwhile, Balami emphasized the use of technology for youth leadership. "Young people have been using social media for recreation purpose, but they should be motivated to use media and technology to promote social campaigns while giving them proper access to government data,” added Balami.
"The sustainable development goals are ambitious and the decision to involve youths to implement it is certainly a wise approach as they are considered to be the most active demographic," said Bhawana Bhatta. Similarly, Thapaliya stated that youth must have extensive knowledge of politics, society, economy and technology and work for the development collectively.
Furthermore, Prof Pokharel stressed on the fact that the sustainable development attempts will push us toward development. “The development of science and technology are contributing factors to development but only having them developed cannot fill our empty bellies”.
Executive Director of Global Action Nepal, BK Shrestha, National Professional Officer at World Health Organization, Sudan Raj Panthi, Expert Member of Environmental Protection Council, Kushal Gurung and Senior Advocate of Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Center, Dinesh Tripathi and Youth Program Officer at UNDP Nepal, Bisam Gyawali were the panelists for the SGD 4, 5,7,16 and 17, respectively.
