Localizing the Global Goals
My name is Bhongolwethu Sonti and I am from South Africa. That’s usually my biggest draw card, coming from a country with such a great story. From our history of colonization to apartheid to the teething effects of an infant democracy, which in truth is of the age where it should have moved out of the house by now. South Africa is one of the great benchmarks of the power of individual motivation and accountability and local action to impact broader change. Transformation happened in South Africa through harnessing resources that were present in communities and the response of youth, who knew they had to take back their present to secure a future.
In 2017, the world is faced with numerous questions about its existence with climate change, wars, increasing inequality and poverty. It would seem as if we are at that part of the movie when you at the edge of your seat and starting to question the lead actor’s ability to even survive the next scene. Alas this is no movie and the issues we face are as real as they come. Global agencies such as the United Nations have historically been a great tool in the response to world changes and challenges, with the power to pool resources and intellect, providing direction to governments in the development agenda. The Sustainable Development Goals came at a time when it was dawning that there needs to be a change in the mechanism of informing and delivering what we call development. The process needs to be inclusive and relevant to make it sustainable.
The UNLEASH Innovation Lab signals a great breakthrough in the implementation of the SDGs. At its heart it embodies SDG 17, which is to “STRENGTHEN THE MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION AND REVITALIZE THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT”, realizing the need for meaningful and relevant participation of youth, who represent the majority of the world’s population, in its process. It excites me to be part of this inaugural class of SDG Talents, but it also makes me more aware of the need for action at the local level to address socio-economic and political instabilities, especially in my country. Global partnerships include those that lie in communities which are grassroots organisations working at a micro level with the potential for a macro return. This is the transition of power, because through working with individuals and communities to design interventions from an experiential and evidence based approach, we can make them more practical, less resource intensive and enable a sense of custodianship. A friend of mine, Velani Mboweni, encapsulates this in his TEDx talk about Commodifying the African Experience and I expand more about the power of collaboration here touching on the importance of youth empowerment.
UNLEASH also comes at important time for me as we try to find ways to harness the demographic dividend in Africa, prioritizing investments in health and education for youth and adolescents. It offers a great opportunity to gain global insights from my peers, who are young professionals and practitioners of development, with the support of established global organisations and individuals. Unlike the movie I referred to earlier, our next 10 and 20 years are not set in script or stone yet, as it is up to us to overcome anxiety and confront our challenges with the optimism of Johnny Bravo and the wisdom of Yoda, using our experiences as a framework and our networks as a leverage to rebuild our planet.
