The 2030 Youth Alliance, Youth Advocates Ghana and its partners have revealed that the next and 3rd African Youth SDGs Summit would take place in June 2020, in Accra, Ghana.
This announcement follows series of engagements with the Summit Patrons and consultations held with various partners regarding the next stage of the African Youth SDGs Summit.
The African Youth SDGs Summit was launched in 2017 as the largest gathering space for dialogue, networking, learning and celebration of successes and participation of young people in the implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and AU Agenda 2063.
As an improvement and follow up process from the first summit, the 2nd African Youth SDGs Summit took place in November 2018 in Accra, attracted 1400 delegates from across the globe who declared their readiness to partner with leaders to drive the implementation of the SDGs.
Building upon past successes and the growing commitment by stakeholders to strengthen the summit, the organizers have agreed to host the next summit in 2020 in Accra for the following reasons:
1. To allow the organizers to reflect on and document the journey so far and review existing structures, resources and policies to improve upon the summit and its programs.
2. To follow up and take stock on the implementation of the recommendations made in the past two summits and document lessons learnt.
3. To consult key stakeholders, partners and young people on how to capitalize on current commitments and initiatives.
4. To continue to mobilize key stakeholders and institutions on the continent and advocate for further support for young people and the summit.
5. To take advantage of a year-long preparation process leading up to the June 2020 summit.
In view of the above, the following activities have been lined up for the year 2019:
• Organize a multi-stakeholder consultative meeting to solicit views, contributions and inputs from partners and stakeholders in further development of key policy documents on the summit.
• Hold National Youth SDGs Policy Roundtables scheduled to take place at country level across Africa.
• Hold Regional Youth CSOs Capacity Building Workshops to improve the knowledge of youth leaders on the SDGs and its accountability processes.
We call on all stakeholders, partners, sponsors, alumni and potential delegates to actively get involved.
As we prepare towards the next Summit in 2020, we invite African youth to lead by example by embodying the values of the SDGs and Agenda 2063 while working for the development of all, creating and maintaining partnerships, sustaining peace, protecting the planet and contributing to prosperity on the continent.
Registrations for the 2020 summit will open in August 2019.