Getting on the road to 2030; Oko Speaks on International Youth Day.

Every year, the world celebrates International Youth Day on 12^th August and today (Friday, the 12^th of August 2016) is not an exception. The exceptional thing about this year’s international youth day however is the theme: “On the road to 2030: Eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable production and consumption”. One would ask, what is on the road to 2030? Nana Chair, Hon. Minister, may you grant me the permission to be your wise young man to take you through the journey.

The road itself is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), on this road, there are 15 speed ramps, these ramps are the milestones we will celebrate on every international youth day and today is the first. On this same road, there are 169 road signs; these are the targets for the SDGs. If we miss the signs (targets), there are chances of road accidents or we miss our way to reaching a successful 2030. Do not forget the traffic lights we see on the roads, they are the indicators. They give us time to think over some of the imbalances on the road when it shows a red light! Why some roads are nicely tarred and others with potholes.

Why some are not tarred at all and others are eroded by the rains. Do you remember the uneven distribution of resources in our communities? That is what I am talking about. The red light gives us an amount of time to reflect over these imbalances and quickly re-strategise to make up for the losses. And when the traffic lights gives a green light, we are convinced to be doing something right and we exchange ideas with the rest of the world and keep moving on to a successful 2030.

This time round, young people (you and I) contributed to developing the SDGs, we were part of making the road to 2030 and therefore we have no reason to complain. I remember about 3 years ago, some advocates from Curious Minds including myself and our coordinator, Mr. Kingsley Obeng-Kyereh interacted with different groups of people in some selected communities on the post-2015 development agenda. Many other young people contributed online and in different spaces. Therefore, instead of complaining of how bad our roads or the system is, we need to ask ourselves. How can I eradicate poverty in my own way? How can I contribute to efforts to increase production to meet the consumption needs of our people?

Now, if we all turn away from agriculture, who will feed us on the road to 2030? Before you think about it, let me tell you about some amazing young people who are doing this and how.

Alfred Godwin Adjabeng, a young man who works on the  Ghana School Farms Project where senior high school students feed their schools from harvests made from their school farms. Justice Kingsley Baidoo is a journalist by profession but runs a poultry farm  simultaneously. John Armah heads a company called Orios Group, but manages a farm. Let me tell you about about my former colleague at Marie Stopes International Ghana, Christabel Afrane, who mentors young girls to take up careers in agriculture and the amazing Reuben Griffths Bekoe, a young man who cycled across Ghana in 3 months and recently walked from Kumasi to Accra to raise awareness in order to raise funds to treat children with cleft lips and cancer respectively. 

I am also working to reduce maternal mortality occasioned by unwanted and unexpected pregnancies in the greater Accra region on the CSE4All project with support from Women Deliver. 

So you see, before you complain of the imbalances or inequalities on the road to 2030, many young people are already making sure Ghana wins the race. It is your choice to crawl, walk, ride, drive, fly or use any form of technology on the road but make sure Ghana wins. This is because we are in this race on the road with over 3.5 billion young people under the age of 30 all around the world. 

Now just take a moment and listen, If all the people I mentioned earlier and all young people have no access to quality education and skills development, adequate information on their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), good career guidance, mentoring and growing up in an environment that supports their goals, what will become of them?

The girls will drop out of school, and become mothers at an early age, the boys will father many children they cannot take care of, and all of us will be unskilled to work in order to earn a living. The poverty cycle continues…

And this is why we are here today. The National Youth Authority (NYA), United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), Marie Stopes Int’l Ghana (MSIG), Ghana Aids Commission (GAC) The Palladium Group and other partners to commemorate international youth day and also to charge us to live responsible lives, make the right choices on our SRHR, think out of the box; be creative and entrepreneurial and make the best out of the resources we have as young people. So let’s get on the road with solutions and put aside complains.  

Francis Oko Armah, Curious Minds, Ghana.

Thank you.