The Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties (SDs) & Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), under the Ministry of Budget and Planning organized an SDGs Youth Development Forum, a consultation engagement designed to provide quality dialogue by engaging notable and high level key decision making leaders who are actively pursuing the SDGs at the State and National Level.
The programme aimed to bring together a focused, dynamic, action oriented agenda, by engaging key leaders in developing a practical roadmap for the actualization of the Sustainable Development Goals and Target for the year 2024.
The Honourable Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr. Laolu Olabimtan charged the team to ensure all suggestive programme and projects were costed in order to make adequate budgetary provisions for them to be mainstreamed into the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for the proceeding years, the programme, held at the Conference room of the Ministry.
In his words “If you understand SDGs, there is no way the government alone can achieve a goal without the support of the people. As a government, we believe in collaboration and the need for key stakeholders and active players to come together and brainstorm on how we can collectively combat challenges and contribute towards the attainment of the programme in the state governance as a whole”.
The facilitator of the programme, the SSA on Special Duties & SDGs, Damilola Otubanjo, charged the ambassadors that the attainment of programme across the state was not a business as usual, emphasising the need for qualitative contents towards the collective development of a practical roadmap for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets in 2024, the roadmap would then be used to develop the calendar for engagement of programmes and projects.
Otubanjo during her opening remark explained the efforts taken by her office since assumptions of duty during the first term of the Governor Dapo Abiodun’s administration, part of which was to carry out a visitation to over 884 Special Intervention projects through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs (OSSAP SDGs) the projects covered schools, hospitals, solar streetlights, road constructions, primary healthcare centres, vocational centres for trainings, market, community centres amongst others.
She said that the project covered the year 2019 through 2022, noting that her office had during the first term established a youth community online with over 1,000 members were trained on SDGs to increase awareness and drive more advocacies and youth engagements.
Responding, the Senior Programme Manager, Terra Culture Academy for the Arts (TAFTA), Olukayode Olasope hailed the collaborative effort of the government, which had culminated into training of over 4,000 young Ogun indigenes on Stage Lighting, Script Writing, Animation, Business enterprise and other ventures, saying that TAFTA had also set up a Learning Center in Abeokuta and Mowe for more training purposes.
