Youth skills, education key to SDGs: analysts

It is crucial for Bangladesh to ensure quality education for the youth, develop their skills and promote young entrepreneurship to achieve the sustainable development goals, analysts said yesterday.

Besides, women should be provided with equal opportunities so that they can contribute to the country's economic growth by utilising their merit and skills, they said. They spoke at a roundtable on "Way to achieve the goals of 2030: Poverty reduction and ensuring sustainable production and consumption".

Prothom Alo and the United Nations Population Fund or UNFPA organised the event at the newspaper's office in Dhaka.

In September 2015, world leaders gathered at the United Nations and signed off on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. Seventeen goals and 169 targets aim at putting an end to poverty and fighting inequality and injustice.

Public participation with the government development initiatives must be ensured to achieve the goals, AHM Mustafa Kamal, planning minister, said at the event.

Inequity must be reduced in society, he said.

People of marginalised communities must be incorporated with the mainstream population for overall development of the country, he said. The youth should also be trained in technical education to enhance their skills, he said.

Biren Sikder, state minister for youth and sports, said his ministry is continuously arranging technical education and training for youths in every district on a regular basis.

There are around five crore youths in Bangladesh, he said.

The food production system should be corrected to minimise waste during production, said Golam Rahman, president of the Consumer Association of Bangladesh.

The young entrepreneurs should be provided with sufficient financial support for the country's economic growth, said Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, vice president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Nazneen Ahmed, senior research fellow at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said women do not get equal opportunities in Bangladesh, especially in rural areas.

The government should set up more special economic zones, exclusively for small and medium enterprises, said Mahmud Hasan Khan, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Mustafizur Rahman, a member of UN Youth Advisory Panel, said the youth should be engaged in social work such as prevention of child marriage and reproductive healthcare.

Child marriage and unemployment are acting as major barriers to achieving SDGs, Munir Hossain, UNFPA's national programme officer, said while presenting a paper in the function.

Abdul Qayyum, associate editor of Prothom Alo, moderated the roundtable while noted economist MM Akash; Farhana A Rahman, vice president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, and Towfiqul Islam Khan, research fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, also spoke.