Students of the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan and Civil Society Organizations were in attendance at the Nigeria Network of NGOs/Center for Sustainable Development seminar, themed Development in Practice: Advancing your career in sustainable development which was held on Friday, 26th May, 2016 at Bodija, Ibadan.

Guest speaker at the seminar, Ms. Crystal Chigbu noted that sustainable development is about giving everything of oneself to society as often as the society requires it. She debunked the notion that sustainable development is simply about charity, saying that there have been misconceptions about sustainable development such that many individuals erroneously think working towards the sustainable development goals simply involves charitable deeds or revenue-making for the purpose of funding NGOs. She noted the importance of disabusing this belief, claiming that it encompasses much more. According to her sustainable development is about innovation and transforming your society in your own way to make impact.

Ms.  Chigbu said impact can be effectively made when a practitioner finds a focus within the SDGs and diligently pursues it. She elaborates on this by stating the importance of adopting four sustainable keys for practice which she labelled, ‘the Irede Model’; Passion, Picture, Pursuing and Impact. The place of passion, she said, cannot be overemphasized as it is the driving force of one’s career and it is through passion that a picture can be effectively pursued to make impact.

She lauded the effectiveness of these keys and attributed the success of her practice to them while noting they help in building and advancing one’s career in development practice. She further added that to build a successful career in sustainable development practice, it is imperative that a practitioner finds a firm placing within the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals as there is the need for practitioners to familiarise themselves with the goals and join the work towards ensuring an orange (happy) world by 2030.

An interactive session followed where participants tabled problematic areas in development practice.

The seminar featured a panel session by volunteers of the Nigeria Network of NGOs who presented reports of their experience with the Network, answered questions pertaining to their areas of expertise and generally gave updates on the projects handled by the Network while they commended the Network for the opportunity it presented in the area of capacity building. The four outgone interns who now serve as volunteers for the Network also noted the importance of being well informed about the civil society sector and enjoined CSOs to take it upon themselves to find out as much as they can about the sector in order to better protect it against unfavourable laws and practices.

The seminar is the second in the series organized by a joint effort of the Nigeria Network of NGOs and the Center for Sustainable Development and focuses on enhancing human capacity development for achieving sustainable development.

Since the adoption of the SDGs, experts, civil society actors, and concerned intellectuals have had a lot to say about them. We have heard speeches, read articles, opinion pieces and more about what the achievement of the SDGs would mean for us as individuals, a country, a continent, and a planet. From iterating the simple meaning of the term, Sustainable Development Goals to speaking about each of the pieces that make it up, one would be inclined to think that quite a lot of discussions go on about the global goals, right?

However, I bet when you go into the streets to ask average citizens what the sustainable development goals are, 90% -95% would gift you with responses ranging from a blank stare to derisive laughter, depending on how informed your pool of respondents is. It, therefore, begs the question, who discusses what?

It seems to me that to a large extent, developmental issues and especially issues around the SDGs are in some way abstract or esoteric. I was recently embroiled in an argument about the non-abstractness of the goals and although I tried to do justice to my position, I was left feeling like not much was done. For some reason, it seems to me that developmental issues are not gaining much traction with the people that matter; citizens. If they were, shouldn’t at the barest minimum, every school-going child know what they are?

A keynote speaker at a conference I attended last year spoke about how citizens need to begin to do more in terms of having and owning their voices. She had noted that with the huge human capital in Africa, especially since majority include young people between ages 15 to 45, more concern should be given the fact that our past, presents are futures are decided by a “few old men” in a room. The speaker had been affronted by what she called the “lack of attention of youths to matters of development”. She said she found it worrisome that youths had imbibed the notion of individuality over the African Ubuntu philosophy and this could only spell doom for sustainability.

In retrospect, this kind of brings me to the #LazyNigerianYouths movement. Even though I felt insulted and unappreciated by that statement made by the President at an International gathering no less, I may now be inclined to not completely fault that statement. I sense a general air of malaise/fatigue when speaking with young people about hope for our country. We have been conditioned to manage our expectations because “the country is not smiling” and perhaps this is why many young men and women risk it all to leave the country. In my opinion, of every six young Nigerian you meet, five aspire to “escape” Nigeria to “any other country but here”, four are in the process of “arranging to leave” while two will succeed to the chagrin of the other three people. All with no intention of returning. Some may argue that these young people are cowards but sometimes I think, “can you really blame anyone for not wanting to stay?”.

When you begin to explain the SDGs in terms of food provision, access to social amenities, income generation and provision of the basic needs of a person and all these are tied to the rights a person is entitled to as a world citizen, you have the attention of people who had, minutes prior to your explanation, given you an impatient shrug as to why you are being a disturbance on a hot Tuesday afternoon. There is more than a likely chance, that this would happen when your discussants are people in rural or hard-to-reach communities but when confronted with more informed individuals, you have a harder nut to crack it would seem.

Citizens who have a more than sparse knowledge of the goals would argue that the global goals are an agenda cooked up by international communities who see the need to be the prince charming for the clueless damsel which African countries constantly prove themselves to be. Even though they make my job harder to do, can they, honestly be blamed for thinking that way?

African leaders are not exactly known for initiating conversation along the lines of sustainable and developmentally-inclined policies. Someone once said, “In Nigeria, it is about the now, no one really cares about the survival of future generations”. In fact, I have been privy to one or two discussions about the inability of the government to implement the goals in totality…wait, that’s a little too mild. Many people, especially youths who are now jaded by the never-ending “promise and fall” attitude of authorities have blatantly expressed derision as to the notion that any government, especially an African one could achieve complete and total development.

Regardless of what is being done about the SDGs and their implementation at the moment, I bet many people, are plagued by the question; “So what Happens after 2030?” After all, we are already three years into the adoption of the SDGs.

On the 2nd year anniversary of the SDGs, Oyindamola Aramide shares her thoughts.

On September 25, 2015, the United Nations general assembly adopted 17 goals which form the universal, integrated and transformative 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. 193 member nations of the United Nations; Nigeria inclusive, formally took on implementation of these global goals in the year 2016 with hopes of full attainment in every country by 2030.

The 17 goals, also referred to as global goals are further broken down into 169 specific targets which fundamentally lean on three crucial domains of environment, economy and society. Each of the goals has a stake in one of these domains with the ultimate goal of ensuring inclusive development for everyone in every city of the world through the mitigation and subsequent eradication of poverty, reduction of hunger and food waste, creation of enabling environments for growth and development, protection of the planet and so on.

One major challenge to the attainment of the SDGs in many countries is the lack of awareness and inadequate sensitization of the public of the goals, what they entail and how their implantation impacts the quality of life of the average citizen. In Nigeria, studies show that more than 50% of the population is unaware of what the sustainable development goals are or how they affect their own development. How then can these goals be achieved if people do not know about them or how they fit into the implementation of the goals?

Two years into the adoption of the goals, there is still more to be done in terms of sensitizing people about each of the goals and how they fit into citizens’ daily lives . First of all, we have to ask ourselves as well as our governments if the goals are even achievable. An inquiry into the SDGs and its implementation puts many in an offensive position and government, on the defensive, where it is obvious that the government is inundated by the sheer magnitude of all that have to be accomplished in the next thirteen years. At this point in the implementation of the SDGs, it becomes imperative to question our governments’ commitment to the promises made in September 2015.  The answers we get may be bitter pills for many of us but, swallow we must, so that we are then forced to begin to demand actions.

Liu Zhenmin, Under Secretary- General of the United Nations and head of its Department of Economic and Social Affairs noted that; “Successful implementation of the SDGs is predicated on people knowing about them. If people are aware of the bold commitments their leaders made in 2015, then citizens can hold their leaders accountable.”

As much as the attainment of the SDGs is prominent in the framework of world nations and strongly backed by the United Nations, Agenda 2030 cannot simply be actualized by increasing awareness and sensitizations. It is important to note that the SDGs only stand a chance at being achieved if everyone takes a part in the implementation. National, state and local governments, the private sector, the academia, civil society as well as average everyday citizens all have a stake at achieving Agenda 2030.

When citizens are engaged in a process especially founded on issues which affect them on personal levels, they would be inclined to act. People which make up a country have high population power (in comparison with those in power) and so the contribution of everyone to issues of development in ways which they find relatable is important to foster implementation of the SDGs for the next thirteen years.

Governments have the prerogative to ensure that people understand that they play a large role in taking up actions especially regarding identifying one particular goal which speaks to them the most, connecting it all on how best the other goals can be achieved.

Education is key to engendering inclusivity and a core goal for being ahead of the curve on a lot of changes. It cannot be denied that the entry point to conversations on the SDGs is goal 4; quality education. It is through the actualization of quality education that poverty can be eradicated and then zero hunger can be achieved.

The greatest challenge to quality education in achieving sustainable development lies in the conflict between the federal, state and local governments in the management of education at these different levels. The problems range from lack of adequate funding of the sector to politicization of the system, indiscipline to general instability of the sector. According to UNESCO, 26% of national budgets are to be allocated to education in each country but it is cannot be said that this is the case in Nigeria and has not been so for many years now. The onus is on the government to revitalize the educational system in the country and provide sustainable funding for the educational sector to achieve the vision of quality education for all by 2030.

Climate change and how human activities lead up to the situation where environmental degradation causes an inability of the environment to sustain life is another area intended to be tackled by the SDGs. It is time to begin to educate people on the importance of sustainable use of nature’s resources in a way that these resources are not used up faster than they can be replenished.

Urbanization and rapid expansion of cities which results in destruction of vegetation and farmlands, release of hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere; another result of massive industrialization, engaging in actions which further jeopardizes the ozone layer; causing a ripple effect on land and sea temperature leading to recent occurrence of massive flooding of many cities around the world, hurricanes and the environment essentially lashing back at the unsustainable use of its resources. These are some of the issues that need to be addressed but cannot simply be achieved solely by government.

Government has to educate people on these errors and while actions have to be taken by all which including everyone making better choices on how best to engage the use of environment resources to forestall irreversible danger.

With partnership and the support of stakeholders on all levels in the society as well as the commitment of all citizens to the attainment of the goals, the government has to brace up to the challenge of delivering on its promise to lead the movement.

Policies which engender peaceful living and create a society which absorbs and spreads development must be enacted, a society which is ideal for global partnership and inclusive development must be created; one devoid of mutual distrust, chaos and violence in order for Nigeria to stand a chance at sustainable development in the long-term.

NNNGO AND CESDEV ORGANIZE CAREER ADVANCEMENT SEMINAR.  

By Oyindamola Aramide, Communications Officer, Nigeria Network of NGOs.

As part of efforts to boost the employability status of young Nigerians and ensure the overall growth of the development practice in the country, The Nigeria Network of NGOs, (NNNGO) in conjunction with Center for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), University of Ibadan is organizing a seminar themed, “Development in Practice; Advancing Your Career in Sustainable Development”.

The seminar is the second event in the seminar series of the partnership between the Network and the Center for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan; it is targeted at nonprofits as well as young and upcoming development practitioners and is geared towards capacity building and career advancement in the development sector.

“Everywhere in the world, there is the idea of the society (town) having symbiotic relationship with the university (gown). But this symbiotic interaction remains in theory for most institutions in Nigeria. Thankfully, the Development Practice Programme of the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan, Nigeria is blazing the trail, having signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nigeria Network of NGOs to implement a workable town and gown collaboration which focuses on enhancing human capacity development for achieving sustainable development through joint conferences, internships and seminars”, said Dr. Olawale Olayide, Coordinator, Development Practice Programme, Center for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan.

For us as Nigeria Network of NGOs, this is an opportunity to give back to society by ensuring that young individuals who intend to build careers in sustainable development practice get insights from the field to complement what is learnt in the classroom” noted the Executive Director, Nigeria Network of NGOs, Mr. Oyebisi B. Oluseyi.

“The seminar series is part of the commitment of the Network to ensuring the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. The first of the series, themed, “Leave No One Behind” was held in September 2016 and had in attendance students of the Center for Sustainable Development as well as civil society organisations and the media”, said Sulaimon Oluwatosin, a Postgraduate Student of the Center for Sustainable Development and Volunteer at the Nigeria Network of NGOs who was a participant at the first event held in 2016.

“Leave no one behind” a slogan coined from the SDGs narrative, is aimed at ensuring an inclusive and encompassing approach to the attainment of the goals by 2030.

The event is scheduled to hold on Friday, May 26, 2017 at CESDEV Suite, 20, Awolowo Avenue, Old Bodija, Ibadan, Nigeria at 10:00am prompt. The event is expected to gather around 100 participants and will feature a presentation by Ms. Crystal Olasumbo Chigbu, the Executive Director and Founder of the IREDE Foundation and a successful development expert.

CONTACT

For more information, please contact

Oyindamola Aramide, Communications Officer, Nigeria Network of NGOs,

151, Akowonjo Road, Egbeda Lagos,

Phone Number: 07065160956

Email Address: nnngo@nnngo.org

Twitter: @nnngo

Facebook: Nigeria Network of NGOs

Website: www.nnngo.org

‘I wish to reaffirm that Nigeria has clearly defined her part on the 2030 agenda – Adefulire says as Nigeria presents at the United Nations

NEW YORK — Nigeria has made progress in integrating the SDGs into its national plans, participants at the United Nations High Level Political Forum on the SDGs were made to know by the Senior Special Adviser to the President on the SDGs- Princess Adejoke Orelope –Adefulire. She told delegates how Nigeria has “taken active steps to mainstream the 2030 agenda into its national, state and sectorial policy plan and budget”.  She noted that the country has also “commenced work on the need assessment, policy and scenario analysis, indicator capturing as well as tracking and reporting” of the SDGs.

The scene on the evening of Wednesday 18^th July at the UN in New York was diplomatic and high level as Sweden, Nigeria and Panama (in that order) presented their voluntary national reports (NVR) to a room full of government delegations from all the UN member states, civil society and private sector.

In 2015, Nigeria joined other countries of the world to agree an agenda to sustainably develop and protect people and planet, it would take them fifteen years costing trillions within a stable economy. The recession witnessed by Nigeria as triggered by global oil crisis and terrorism has impacted “our collective aspiration to address the numerous challenges confronting the poor and vulnerable in our society. For us in Nigeria, the humanitarian crisis in the North –East and the persistent militancy in the Niger-Delta has further slowed us down in our drive to implement the SDGs in Nigeria’’ stated Adefulire in her NVR remarks to the UN. Despite these challenges, she is confident that “Nigeria has clearly defined her part on the 2030 agenda”.

Speaking directly from New York to the NNNGO news website, Oyebisi. B. Oluseyi, Executive Director, Nigeria Network of NGOs said that the High level political forum was established in 2013 to act as the recognized home for sustainable development governance within the United Nations system. It is the pre-eminent body in the international framework for sustainable development and will ultimately be responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the 2030 agenda on sustainable development goals.

“The Nigerian Government is to be commended for providing the space for civil society and the private sector to make input into the country’s voluntary report and to join the Senior Special Adviser to the President on the SDG’s in making presentations to the UN on the country’s SDG’s interventions” Oyebisi stated.

“Through the 100 pages report submitted by the Nigerian Government we have seen the strides made by the Buhari Administration, the challenges and gaps that needs to be addressed. Now is the time for civil society to get more organized in working with government to ensure the 2030 agenda becomes achievable and that the Civil Society Advisory Group on the SDGs is strengthened to provide the space for civil society’s engagement in the design and implementation of quality programmes and projects that can aid the delivery of sustainable development to all corners of the country without “leaving anyone behind”.

The High Level Political Forum on the SDGs was held from 10-19 July 2017.

With the SDGs now 2 years, Ms. Oluwatosin Sulaimon our Project Officer shares her thoughts on what needs to be done to attain the SDGs.

It’s been two years since the adoption of the sustainable development goals by 193 member states of the United Nations. September 25 – 27, 2015, world leaders gathered for a three-day summit at the United Nations to unanimously adopt a global agenda of 17 goals that aim to end poverty in all forms, protect the planet and ensure people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

Promises to achieve all these goals by 2030 were made and each country is expected to nationalize strategies, policies and processes.

Presently, more than 60% of the population still lives in poverty, we have the Boko Haram in the North destroying lives and property, the IPOB in the East agitating for sovereign state of Biafra, yearly increase of youth unemployment, kidnapping across the nation and climate issues amongst others. All of these issues and more spell doom for national development.

It is worthy to note, however, that successful implementation and achievement requires a collective effort of every Nigerian including those in the diaspora. An inclusive approach where every Nigerian everywhere is supporting the government either locally or nationally is the best technique that can be adopted. The government, media, academics, civil society, youths and private individuals should all get involved and ensure no one is left behind.

Every actor should build on the experience gained during the MDGs. Lessons learnt should serve as basis for better implementation and monitoring of the SDGs.

The academics should plug into existing networks such as the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, critique the government at all levels and importantly intensify their research on how best to implement the goals.

More media practitioners are needed to create platforms where further awareness can be created for these goals as well as proper monitoring of progress made.

The private sector can come in by creating more employment opportunities, producing sustainably and consequently ensuring a friendly and resilient climate. The sector should also get involved in corporate social responsibility initiatives which can go a long way in addressing social issues in the country.

The civil society as a driver of development, has been known to support the efforts of the government at all levels in ensuring national development. From mobilization of people and resources to wide dissemination of essential information, advocacy, monitoring and collaborating with other stakeholders. Civil society organisations should ensure they are at every point of their activities accountable and transparent to foster their contributions to SDGs attainment and national development. They should also use their various platforms to increase the level of awareness of the SDGs amongst Nigerians especially the grassroots who are expected to feel the impacts of development the most because the higher the level of awareness, the greater the possibilities of informing the government what we desire as citizens.

Youths are important actors in the development process and are generally perceived to be the drivers of social change. It is of great essence that they start taking responsibilities for the Nigeria they want. Youths have to relentlessly and with utmost belief fight for their future. No youth is too young to make a difference.

Nigerian government at all levels should in conjunction with their main responsibilities of ensuring national development create enabling environments for other stakeholders to carry out their activities, ensure inclusiveness, build and strengthen partnership with relevant organisations and agencies and most importantly, be receptive.

Not discountenancing the fact that some of these actors have since the adoption of these goals started creditable activities, the importance of intensifying all efforts cannot be overemphasized.

Attaining all 17 sustainable development goals by 2030 in Nigeria, I believe will be one of the greatest achievements of the country. Let us come together and work as one.

Together we can!!!

Two years after the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, those goals have never been more vital to the development of the 193 countries (including Nigeria) subscribing to the 17 goals and 169 specific targets.

Many Nigerians may not be aware of the SDGs and may think it is too technical. But they know firsthand what it means to go for days without food, they ride on bad roads and have at one point or the other witnessed the lack of social services, be it in the areas of health, access to good education or lack of portable water. Up NEPA! is our second national anthem.

Two years into the 15 years lifespan of the goals, Nigeria through the Office of the Senior Special Adviser to the President on SDGs (SSAP-SDGs) has taken national ownership of the SDGs and has worked to integrate the goals into the nations planning documents.

“The Government of Nigeria has embarked on an SDGs Needs Assessment and Policy Analysis exercise which should provide the nation with the much-needed baseline data and information to enable the forecast and planning for the subsequent public investments across sectors and regions and hence, more effective and efficient resource use as well as impact’’, we read in the opening statement of the President in the National Voluntary Report submitted by Nigeria to the “people and international community on implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the Federal Republic of Nigeria’’ in July 2017 in New York.

The above leaves no room for doubt or debate on whether Nigeria is taking steps to implement the SDGs. As with many of our plans and programmes, time is of essence. Nigeria has been in the development labour room for years, going through the pangs of development labour, yet its doctors have refused to send it to an emergency ward for necessary surgical operation. Overwhelming debt profile, recession, corruption and plummeting economy has greatly compounded our agony as a nation.

With the Presidential Council on the SDGs now in place, their role will be paramount in developing and implementing an urgent response in attaining the SDGs by 2030 and deflating the country’s poverty rate from the present 112 million Nigerians living below the poverty line as of 2016.

Before they are reduced to mere projects, the SDGs provide a basis for developing and implementing clear national development plans, set a good foundation for a carefully articulated political party manifesto and may even be a good agenda for discussing the much touted ‘restructuring’’.  Our technical and political elites including grassroots mobilisers must now pay attention to the SDGs and what “its spirit is telling the congregation”.

The SDGs leave a whole new level of development agenda that needs scaling. The last time I checked, no one yet has estimated the full cost, however, allocation of resources to the right sectors of the economy will be the most critical factor, in the view of development specialists. They dare to hope that with the country now out of recession, the 2018 federal, state and local government budgets will be SDGs-based providing the spark for a long overdue accelerated implementation of the goals.

All Nigerians should rally forcefully behind their fellow citizens being left behind on the island of development as the country labours to develop using the SDGs as an accountability framework for holding all stakeholders accountable — government, private and civil society.

It is up to the private and civil society sector to partner government in ensuring that by 2030, we have a Nigeria that “Nigerians want” after all the 17 issues listed in the goals have been with us since independence and they are more Nigerian than foreign.

Oyebisi B. Oluseyi, Executive Director, Nigeria Network of NGOs writes in from Lagos, seyi@nnngo.org

Copyright PUNCH.

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate the second year of adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), civil society organisations in Nigeria are calling on the Federal, State and Local Governments to act on the SDGs.

It has been two years since September 25, 2015, when the Nigerian Government joined other United Nations world leaders to agree to a definitive plan for the planet and its people by adopting the Agenda 2030 and the 17 Goals.

The SDGs are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. In different parts of the country civil society organisations are organising events from Lagos to Benue, to Bayelsa and Abuja to mark the second anniversary.

According to the Executive Director, Nigeria Network of NGOs, Mr. Oyebisi B. Oluseyi, “Citizens across the country are calling attention to the many forms of inequalities everywhere/

“If our governments (at all levels) don’t act in time, we stand the chance of not meeting the goals and our growing pains — disparities in the incomes of the poor and the wealthy, limited access to education, health and basic social services, increasing vulnerabilities of the poorest to human-induced climate change and disasters, and the growing repression of human rights and civic participation would have exacerbated.”

“Our celebration of the 2nd anniversary of the SDGs is with mixed feelings; we are glad that two years ago the world came together to care for people and the planet. It is however worrying that between then and now we have as a country witnessed increased social injustice with more people going hungry. With an estimated 184 million inhabitants in Nigeria, 112 million of these live below the poverty line; this is unacceptable and it calls for urgent action on the part of our government.

“Now is the time to break the cycle of poverty in our land! As President Muhammadu Buhari returns from the UN General Assembly, we want to share our concerns with him and to remind him of the urgent need to accelerate action on the implementation of the SDGs in Nigeria.

“We need action at all levels. First, we need to increase awareness, then public policies that create real changes to reduce inequalities in and between states. We must also change production and consumption patterns, in order to make development sustainable for the environment and for people.

“While the Federal Government is to be commended for its social protection programme and the adoption of the national social protection policy, we hope that the programme will cover all sections of the population in need of this. With the Government’s effort in raising revenue through taxes, we recommend fair and equitable tax system that is people-centered and devoid of multiple taxation.

“Women’s and girls’ rights is an important first as we move to attain the SDGs, this is the bedrock of our national development. Freedom of civil society and political participation is a critical foundation to the stakeholder partnership that is needed to attain the ambitious Agenda 2030. A shrinking civic space is bad for development”, Oluseyi added.

On his own part, Director, Justice Development and Peace Commission, Ijebu Ode, Rev. Father John Patrick, said, “We remain concerned about the growing threat to the nation’s peaceful co-existence”. He urged all “as citizens to cultivate the culture of living together in unity as there is no development without peace; there is no peace without development. Now is the time to walk the talk! Let’s act together!”

Copyright THISDAYLIVE.