The document discusses how youth can help advance the Millennium Development Goals agenda by becoming Youth Millennium Development Ambassadors and working at the local level to convene community summits, formulate community development goals, and design programs to realize the goals in their own communities based on the United Nations model of formulating the MDGs. Youth are central to achieving many of the MDGs and can inspire, empower, connect, and mobilize local communities towards sustainable development.

1. EOTO WORLD GLOBAL INTERNET FORUM, 18-20 JULY:
INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP FOR THE MDGS AND LEVERAGING
TECHNOLOGY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEACE
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND YOUTH: How can
youth move the MDG agenda forward?
By Dr. Raphael Ogar Oko
International Coordinator,
Millennium Development Ambassadors
www.mdgambassadors.org

2. BRIEF ON DR. RAPHAEL OGAR OKO
 Obtained a B.Ed degree in Curriculum Studies and Educational
Technology/Mathematics and was awarded the 1990 Best Graduating Student
Award and other further training
 An Ambassador for Peace of the Universal Peace Federation in Nigeria
 UNOY Peace building campaigner of the months in March and May 2006
 Appointed as Africa Regional Coordinator for Teachers Without Borders in 2007
and
 initiated the Millennium Development Ambassadors program and has appointed
thousands of local leaders in Africa and around the world who are making efforts
toward the realization of the UN MDGs. In 2011, launched the Youth Millennium
Development Ambassadors program in Sierra Leone
 Initiated several other programs including Voice of Teachers radio show
 In May 2009, Raphael’s “Wall-less Classroom” initiative was selected among the
100 “Projects for Peace” by the Davis Foundation. In August, 2009, Raphael was
named the recipient of the Champions of Quality Education in Africa by the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation & Ashoka's Changemakers' competition
for working to closing the education divide
 In 2010, Raphael bagged an honorary Doctorate degree in Public Administration
for his leadership role. Raphael was selected to speak at the first TEDxWiserU
conference at Peking University in Beijing on August 21, 2010. TEDxWiserU is a
new TEDx event that focuses on innovation in education.
 Has been public speaker in several international and local forums on
contemporary issues

3. MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND YOUTH:
HOW CAN YOUTH MOVE THE MDG AGENDA FORWARD?
 BACK GROUND INFORMATION ON MDGs
 MDGs: The Millennium Development Goals
 HISTORY OF THE MDGs
 The desire for development is global
 Everyone without exception is seeking for development
 Despite the global desire for development, we are not living
in a globally developed world
 There is a global development divide
 Several efforts have been made to bridge the divide and
build a globally developed world
 Efforts not realized as very few nations are developed and
many are developing and others underdeveloped

4. 20TH CENTURY EFFORTS FOR DEVELOPMENT
 Last decade of 20th century witnessed several
promises:
 Education for all
 Health for all
 Housing for all
 Food for all
 Etc
 Promises not fulfilled by end of 20th century
 Global desire for development remained in the
heart of all people and nations

5. UN MILLENNIUM SUMMIT IN 2000 AND
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
 To bridge the global development divide, UN
summit held in 2000
 Outcome was Millennium Declaration
 Secretariat of UN formulated the MDGs 2015
 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
 Achieve universal primary education
 Promote gender equality and empower women
 Reduce child mortality
 Improve maternal health
 Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
 Ensure environmental sustainability
 Develop global partnership for development

6. MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

7. PURPOSE OF THE GOALS AND CHALLENGES
 To bridge the global development divide
 However, by 2012, indications are clear that most
nations may not be able to attain the MDG by 2015
for several reasons
 Ignorance of the goals
 Non involvement of core beneficiaries of the goals
 Violence and conflicts around the world
 Emphasis on inter-national development divide while
ignoring intra-national divide
 Leadership and good governance issues
 Inability to enforce international development
agreements
 Global economic crisis and climate change, etc

8. RENEWING THE DEVELOPMENT DIVIDE BRIDGE
APPROACH
 Bridging the global development divide is NOT
merely between nations
 Development divide within nations is a major issue
 To achieve global development, we need to bridge
both development divide between nations and
within nations
 In most nations, youth play very significant role in
moving the nation either backward or forward
(recent Arab and North African spring are
examples)

9. THE YOUTH AND MDG
 In each nation, we need to bridge the development divide within
the nation with the MDGs
 Youth have indispensable roles to play in advancing the
realization of the goals
 Lack of awareness of the MDGs and ignorance of the core target
groups
 Uninspired about the global vision of development
 Not empowered with professional tools and capacity to drive the
agenda
 Disconnect from information, each other and resources
 Under utilization and abuse of resources for development
 Inability to acknowledge and appreciate efforts toward sustainable
development
 Lack of structures for effective implementation and
monitoring/evaluation
 Lack of commitment by stakeholders
 Approach to bridging the divide with a focus on international divide

10. WHAT CAN YOUTH DO?
 As representatives of our common future and
leaders of tomorrow, which starts today, youth can
advance the realization of the MDGs in several
ways
 Taking ownership of the agenda as Youth Development
Goals (understanding the process of the goals, the
content of the goals, how to design programs to achieve
the goals and implementation of programs and
projects, etc)
 Reaching out to others on acquired knowledge and
skills to help them understand and implement the goals
 Monitoring and evaluation of efforts toward the goals

11. WHAT YOUTH CAN DO
 Inspire the people with the global vision of
development
 Empower people with professional tools and skills
for implementing the goals
 Connecting people to information, each other and
to resources
 Utilizing human and material resources for
development
 Celebrating commitments, dedication and
accomplishments for development

12. YOUTH AND LOCALIZATION OF MDG
 Become Youth Millennium Development
Ambassadors (Youth Ambassadors for
Development working in local communities to
facilitate the realization of the MDGs)
 Learn the UN Model and replicate in local
communities
 Guide local communities to implement the MDGs
 Key role of youth is to serve as facilitators and
connectors of the policy makers with the people

13. THE UN MODEL FOR MDG FORMULATION
 The United Nations convened he Millennium
Summit, which brought together world leaders from
about 189 nations to the UN Headquarters
 During the summit, participants deliberated on the
challenges facing the world and the need for an urgent
collective response beyond individual aspirations and
challenges of each member nation
 The outcome of the summit was the endorsement of the
resolution called the Millennium Declaration
 The Secretariat of the United Nations translated the
Millennium Declaration into achievable goals and targets
and therefore formulated the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs)
 Member nations were mobilized to adopt and adapt the
MDGs in their nations and to create platforms and
networks to work toward the realization of the MDGs

14. UN MODEL CONT’D
 Partnership among and between member nations as well as
with other NGOs and other stakeholders have been
encouraged by the UN for all nations to realize the goals
 Programs and projects were designed, formulated and shared
with members and partners to learn from and to implement in
member nations
 Funding for proposed programs and projects were explored
and new funding sources are being explored to ensure
members and partners have the resources to achieve the
goals
 Reporting mechanism is established through periodic UN
meetings, assemblies, etc to receive reports and to reinforce
ongoing efforts
 Member nations are expected to domesticate the goals and
create in country visibility for all efforts toward the MDGs
realization

15. YOUTH APPROACH TO LOCALIZING MDG
 The 10-point approach offers a model for localizing the
MDGs by youth in their communities:
 Convene the Millennium Summit of your focus area
 Deliberate on the Challenges being faced and reflect on need
for collective actions by the area
 Issue the Millennium Declaration of the area
 Formulate the Millennium Development Goals of the area
 Identify core members of the area and mobilize them to adopt
and adapt the goals
 Build partnership among core stakeholders
 Design programs and projects to facilitate realization of the
goals
 Raise funds and explore areas of other funding for programs
and projects
 Create a reporting/frequent meeting/assessment mechanism
 Encourage stakeholders to further localize the MDGs until it
gets to personal level realization of the goals

16. YOUTH AT THE CENTER OF MDG
 Youth are at the center of most of the goals
 Youth and poverty/hunger:
 Reduce extreme wealth and excess food (microcredit, etc)
 Youth and education
 Ensure that education for all campaign is promoted
 Youth and gender equality/women empowerment
 Providing equal opportunities to both male and female
 Youth and child mortality
 Youth and maternal health
 Youth and HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
 Youth and the environment
 Youth and partnership for development

17. CONCLUSION
 Youth can serve as Youth Millennium Development
Ambassadors in their communities and
inspire, empower, connect, utilize and celebrate
people for sustainable development
 Since many people in local areas are ignorant of
the MDGs, youth can bring the summit to local
community levels and work with local communities
to convene community summit, issue community
development declaration, community development
goals and development programs
 Since a significant percentage of the world are
youth, a focus on youth involvement can facilitate
the realization of the MDGs

18. THANK YOU
I appreciate the opportunity to share
with you briefly and hope that you can
read more about our initiative involving
youth and MDGs on our website
www.mdgambassadors.org
 Best wishes