Feb 19 Nerima Wako - Active Youth for Community ...



NAYD PROGRESS REPORT MARCH to April 2016INTRODUCTIONThe #NAYDSDGS iswas an initiative founded in January 2016 with the consensus of African Youth in order to have a platform to implement, as well as monitor, the progress of the SDGs in Africa.The objective of the #NAYDSDGS Initiative is to:Identify community based SDGs priorities and nuance them with community context Create awareness of the SDGs in local communities and build constituency Enable youth to monitor relevant SDGs in their community by creating a local monitoring platform Create a central knowledge hub that provides technical support, monitoring instruments, toolkits and indicators.Develop a capacity building programme that provides mentorship for youth-led organisations and initiatives in relation to the SDGs.Following the consensus to start the initiative, it was agreed that a country team made up of seven members would work together in each country to coordinate and work with other youth led organisations to monitor the SDGs activities in each of the countries. Subsequently, there was a call for interested youth to lead in their countries and form teams to be able to carry out the objectives of the initiative. Further to this, the teams are to work on country action plans which will help to expressknow what exactly the countries are doing. The essence of allowing the country teams to work on country specific plans is to allow each country to work out what their priorities will be and at the same time map out what exactly the youth think is priority for them.It was also agreed to have regional level coordination to work with the country teams to ensure their effectiveness.Toill date the initiative has carried out the following activities:Development of country teams and action plansTwiteeter chats with young people who are experts Ion the 17 fields covered by SDGsSGoogle hangouts with country teams to discuss progress of SDGs in their respective countries.Development of a roadmapDevelopment of a workshop concept noteDEVELOPMENT OF COUNTRY ACTION PLANS AND TEAMFollowing the constitution of country teams, the teams started working on country action plans. Toill date there are 2216 action plans from the following countries:BeninBurkina FasoBurundiCamerounCape VerdeCote d’IvoireEgyptEthiopiaGambiaGhanaGuinea ConakryIvory CoastGhanaLesotho LiberiaMalawiNigerSierra LeoneSomaliaSouth AfricaSwazilandTogoZimbabweFrom what is received so far there are 342 country teams made up of the following countries:BeninBotswanaBurkina FasoBurundiCameroounCape VerdeCentral African RepublicComorosCongo (DRC)DjiboutiEgyptSomalilandEritreaEthiopiaGabonGambiaGhanaSierra LeoneGuineaGuinea BissauCote D’IvoireKenyaLesothoLiberiaMalawiMauritiusNigerNigeriaRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSouth AfricaTanzaniaTogoTunisiaUgandaZambiaZimbabweCountries with team lead aloneAlgeriaEgyptEquitorial GuineaKenyaLibyaMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueSao tome& PrincipeSouth SudanCountry Progress reportIn order to monitor the progress made in each country, a simple progress report template was disseminated to all the country team leads in all the country to report on activities carried out till the end of March 2016 . The progress report was aimed at gathering the constitution of the country teams, their organisation and the gender balance of the team, challenges with developing the country action plans, what communication tools where being used and activities carried out within the reporting period. Only 8 progress reports where received from the over 20 teams that where available at the time from the following countries:BeninBurundiLesothoNigerSomalilandTunisiaZambiaSouth SudanOBSERVATIONS FROM THE COUNTRY PLANSIt was clearly seen from the analysis of the country plans received that most of the country teams do not know what the SDGs are, neither do they know exactly what they should do in their various countries as regards the initiative.The template that was sent to mitigate the above observation also became an impediment in the sense that those that eventually made use of the template thought the suggested activities where already the proposed activities and only filled the objectives part of the template.There was no cross cutting activities that were measurable and could tie closely with the SDGs except to say that this initiative is clearly working on Goal 17.There is also no clear plan from the countries on how exactly these goals will be monitored and it is not far from the fact that they seem not to understand what they want to address.OBSERVATIONS FROM THE PROGRESS REPORTSThe following can be deduced:Most of the organisations involved so far are youth –led organisations, there is only one being driven by a youth from the Government (Zambia)The most favoured way of meeting is through social media such as the Facebook messenger, WhatsApp and through mails despite the internet access and connectivity challenges.The progress report did not capture the number of female members in the team neither did it capture the specific roles of the team members working on the initiative.From the contact list it can be deduced that there are about 280 people representing 226 organisations in addition to 50 individuals who are not associated with any organisations who are members of the network.Most of the reports all highlighted the difficulty in meeting due to members of the team located in different locations in the country.TWITEETER CHATSIn order to increase the awareness of the SDGS and also give youth the platform to discuss topical issues related to the SDGs, the initiative has been organising Ttwitter chats with different youth guests to discuss various issues. The following Ttwiteeter chats on #NnaydCchat have been carried out so far:Mar 8 – Vivian Onano – ‘Gender Parity – getting it right’Mar 9 - @TrackaNG – ‘Accountability as an essential tooll towards sustainable development in Africa’Mar 16 Deogratius Magero – ‘Fostering a peaceful environment for sustainable development in Africa’Apr 13 Alvin Nyika - ‘The role of SocEnt in achieving sustainable development in Africa’ GOOGLE HANGOUTSSimilar to the objectives to convene tweeter chats, the initiative has been carrying out Ggoogle Hhangouts. The following Ggoogle Hhangouts have been organised so far: March 1st – ‘Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in rural Africa’ -?the team from?Cameroon told us the challenges they faced and how a strong network might help tackle these challenges.??March 26th – ‘Setting up communication and network systems in rural communities in Africa’ when we heard about a web-based community development tool that supports rural communities in their efforts to voice their priorities for development.??April 16th – ‘Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in rural Africa’ -?the team from?Somalia told us the specific challenges faced in their country including militia internet restrictions in rural communities??IN CONVERSATION WITH..Similar to the objectives for Ttwitter and Ggoogle Hhangouts using our INSPIRE BlogLOG Feb 19 Nerima Wako - Active Youth for Community Development in AfricaMar 30 - Dr. Loise Gichuhi - The Education System in Africa has Failed the YouthApr 20 - Brad Brasseur - Quality Education for Sustainable DevelopmentDEVELOPMENT OF ROADMAPFor the initiative to be easily understood by partners and other stakeholders, it was agreed by the coordinating team that there should be a road map to clearly state the objectives and the proposed activities that the initiative will be carrying out.PROPOSED WORKSHOPThe initiative has to be launched to publicly announce the initiative so it will officially start implementationing. Not only that, the initiative has to also have an opportunity to bring all the participating country team leads including the support group together to discuss the initiative face to face as opposed to the virtual meetings that had been carried out so far. Hence the workshop aims to address the following:Review how African CSOs understand SDGs and Agenda 2063, and how those agendas will be implemented at local levels by CSOs and deepen the knowledge and understanding of the delegates around the domestication, mainstreaming and monitoring of the SDGs.To discuss the success factors in the past programmes that have worked well at local levels; and identify priority actions and measures needed to adequately address the challenge of poverty eradication and sustainable development– clearly specifying those to be undertaken by CSOs, in cooperation with public institutions, regional organizations and development partners;To collaboratively device a continental road map that will enable collective action by rural communities in the implementation of SDGS; and capacity building on community monitoring, accountability and advocacy and engagement. GENERAL ASSEMBLY On the first Saturday of every month, the whole network of youth involved in the Iinitiative meets to discuss sundry issues as it affects the initiative. The report of the meeting is usually disseminated to all members as well as all stakeholders. So far, the initiative has had 3 of such meetings which are convened via the Facebook chat page. Despite the language barrier and the several ways that haves been proposed to mitigate it, the meeting seems to be well attended though it is noticeable that the French, Portuguese and Arabic speakers do not say much.COORDINATION AND ADMINISTRATIONThe initiative has been coordinated by an improvised coordinating team and as the need arises. There is therefore a voluntary loose coordinating team that sees to the day to day affairs of the initiative.In as much as this could be good for the present level, eventually it will not be sustainable, there needs to be specific roles for the coordinating team so each person knows what s/he is assigned to do.RECOMMENDATIONSBased on the observations above the following are recommended:A sustainable capacity building plan for the country teams should be developed.In view of the present challenge with the development of the country plans/strategies, a general plan which includes an M&E framework should be developed. Development of a term of reference for the country teams and all other support team members is very important. This will make their roles and obligations in the initiative very clear. The countries with only team leads should be followed up and assisted to constitute teams.In order to be able to ascertain which organisations is part of the initiative, all organisational acronyms should be written in full on the contact list. It should also be stated what kind of organisation it is i.e whether it is a Community based Organisation or a faith based organisation or a network organisation at the national level e,t.c . In addition to this; all the full details of those on the contact list should be updated on the list.On communications, it is essential to identify and popularise the brand of the initiative. All members should make an effort to popularise the brands on social media et.c . Admistrative wise, a letterhead and other communication materials should be developed using the brand.Minutes of meeting should be written in a professional manner and documented. Minutes/reports should be developed from the transcripts of meeting to capture the resolutions of the meeting and properly disseminated.For coordination purposes, an organogram should be developed to state clearly the link among everyone.There are some countries that are ready to launch the initiatives in their countries. What support can be given to them?A more sustainable way should be proposed to overcome the language barrier. ................
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