Meeting SDGS: Nurse the youth thru pandemic
There has to be a policy in place to make sure that the problems faced by the youth during the pandemic can be overcome if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be met, said speakers at a virtual dialogue yesterday.
The dialogue titled "Voluntary National Review 2020 and Youth Perspectives" was jointly organised by the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, Plan International Bangladesh and The Daily Star.
Citizens's Platform for SDGs is a platform of 104 civil society organisations, committed to meeting the SDGs.
The Voluntary National Review (VNR) is a process through which countries showcase their progress in achieving global SDGs, and furthermore allow themselves to be evaluated by other countries.
This year, 51 nations, including Bangladesh, signed up to be reviewed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the High-Level Political Forum 2020.
This is the second time that Bangladesh volunteered for the review. It first volunteered in 2017.
Speakers at the policy dialogue yesterday provided recommendations on Bangladesh's VNR process, particularly regarding youth issues.
"Ensuring quality education is still a challenge, even though more children are going to school now. One third of our youth, our total labour force, is not utilised," said Dr Shamsul Alam, member (Senior Secretary) of General Economics Division at the Ministry of Planning.
He added that universal health coverage is still a daunting task without universal health insurance and that lack of urban infrastructure is still a deterrent to urban development.
"There is huge risk of a large number of students not coming back to school when the pandemic ends. They may fall victim to child marriage, trafficking…," said Swapan Kumar Guha, executive director of Khulna-based NGO Rupantar. He stressed on this being a potential deterrent towards reaching the SDGs.
Underprivileged children have not been included in online classes because of a digital divide, said Mishal Bin Salim, a youth leader from National Girl Child Advocacy Forum.
"Thirty-two percent of the girls who enrol in secondary schools end up dropping out, compared to the five percent of boys," pointed out Orla Murphy, country director of Plan International Bangladesh. "60 percent of girls are married under the age of 18 while 82 percent of young girls become victims of violence."
"Covid-19 has deepened the fault lines between the youth population that is thriving and the group that is vulnerable, which includes women and young girls," said Debapriya Bhattacharya, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue, who also moderated the session. "There needs to be a safeguarding policy, an adjusting policy for the youth following the pandemic."
The Covid-19 outbreak has adversely affected the financial situation of small local NGOs who provide essential community services to the youth, said speakers.
"The challenge we have as a government is coming back on track on the SDGs and at the same time responding to the pandemic," commented Saber Hossain Chowdhury, a parliamentarian.
"If we keep the government's involvement in youth affairs limited to sports and recreation, then we will not be able to use the demographic dividend."
Currently, the government department tasked specifically with youth issues is the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
"We need to innovate now to make sure that services will find people wherever they are and help them," said Asa Torkelsson, UNFPA Bangladesh Representative, speaking on the issue.
Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, said that while there is a group of youths involved in the SDG process, there is a far larger group who is left behind, in terms of education and employability. The demographic dividend is there -- but how much have they been incorporated?
Rashidul Islam, director-general of NGO Affairs Bureau, also spoke at the event.
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