Interactive dialogue with Major Groups and other Stakeholders – Statement by Samuel Kissi, AfriYAN

Samuel Kissi, AfriYANStatement by Samuel Kissi, AfriYAN: Post 2015 Intergovernmental Negotiations, March

Mr. Chair, we are grateful for this opportunity, and we welcome the proposed 17 goals and 169 targets from the Open Working Group. These form a strong framework for the advancement of a sustainable development agenda and we are pleased by the attempt to ensure that all segments of society are carried along in this new agenda.

While the Open Working Group report references the importance of young people, the Post-2015 Agenda must go further. in underscoring the cross-cutting needs, rights and roles of adolescents and youth in all their diversity. A truly transformative and people-centered sustainable development agenda will only be realized if it has young people at its heart.  

We cannot fully understand nor address poverty and inequality if we ignore their disproportionate effects on children, youth and other vulnerable groups. We will not make true progress if quality education is not accessible to all, and if it does not include critical aspects like comprehensive sexuality education, and civic participation; if young people do not have equal access to decent work; and if universal access to health does not guarantee the sexual and reproductive health and rights for all young people.

Therefore, we urge Member States to ensure that the Post 2015 indicator framework adequately captures the level of ambition and aspiration of the SDGs, in order to truly ensure that no one is left behind including adolescents and youth.  

In this vein,

• It is imperative to incorporate a human rights dimension to the indicators that will monitor the SDGs.
• Rather than focusing on an arbitrary number of indicators, we must ensure that the set of indicators is robust, high quality, and at a level of ambition beyond the MDGs such that it reflects the aspirational nature of the SDGs and can enable us to effectively monitor our progress towards sustainable development.
• The importance of systematic disaggregation of all data beyond age and sex must be underscored; this includes disaggregation by income, gender, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other relevant characteristics, as outlined in target 17.18 of the OWG proposal. This will be crucial in capturing and addressing inequalities, an ambition specifically reflected in Goal 10 and across all goals.
• Finally, we must be guided by principles of human rights and non-discrimination, ensuring dignity and equality for all including young people.

It is important that the current capacity of national statistical institutions do not serve as a limitation in this process but remind us of the dire need for vamping up these institutions.

Nelson Mandela once said “you can tell the future of a country from how it treats its young people today”. Today, we can tell the future of the world from how we prioritize adolescents and youth in the Post 2015 Development Agenda.