Friday 2nd of December 2016, saw about 32 Young Leaders from Civil Societies and NGOs across the Nation dialogued on the Global Goals and localizing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) in Nigeria.

It could be recalled that in September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – a historic, forward-looking and universal agenda that has the potential to save and transform the lives of billions of people by lifting them out of poverty, advancing our human rights and protecting the planet, improving quality education, decent work and economic growth, achieving good health (including sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights), promoting gender equality and women's and girls’ empowerment, and have reaffirmed that people are at the center of Sustainable Development.

The National Youth Round-Table Dialogue on the Sustainable Development Goals themed ‘Youth Development and the SDGs’ was convened by a Youth Policy Expert and Lagos Youth Parliamentarian, Ibrahim Owolabi.

The dialogue had United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Information Centre, Lagos and the Lagos State Government as partners while dialogue speakers were Hon. Segun Olulade, Chairman House Committee on Health, Lagos State House of Assembly, Abiola Hamid from Africa Network of Youth Policy Experts and Hon. Taiwo Ayedun the Senior Special Assistant on Civic Engagement to Lagos State Governor Mr Akinwunmi Ambode also shared their views on taking action on SDGs.

The dialogue was broken into two parts, the first was presentation on SDGs by stakeholders followed by a syndicate discussion on the three Cornerstones of the Global Goals namely Economic Development; Social Inclusion and Environmental Sustainability. It was really a great learning point and experience sharing moment for delegates to accelerate their Development Impact driven projects and improve for excellence on the Global Goals.

Part of the communique at the event include: Allocation of larger percentage of budget to education, Restructuring the country educational curriculum to include practical courses, Encouraging business to accept graduate training rather than experience job seekers, Better sensitization of the citizen on climate change and the course Legislative pronouncement against discrimination against others (be it religion, culture etc). The dialogue is expected to be a catalyst to achieving larger percent of the SDGs by the year 2030. Such discussion on SDGs is expected to be held quarterly for better monitoring.