The Institute for Youths Engagement in Sustainable Development (IYESD) is an initiative designed to empower young people to be at the forefront of implementing sustainable development goals in Africa. It seeks to change the mindset and awaken the spirit of the young Africans to realize their potentials as well as fostering a sense of being responsible citizens and key enablers amongst the next generation of social entrepreneurs and civic leaders working to change the region and build a sustainable future for Africa.

Moving forward will require a wide range of strategies – from preparing advocacy workshops to funding proposals; from hosting meetings to producing detailed action frameworks; from staging events to adapting existing legislation and policies. The author has identified the following strategies as essential for moving forward with advancing the cause of this project. Strategy Examples of practicesVision-Building and Advocacy • Lobby to embed SDGs in education curricula, government policies and all levels of development plans. • Organize SDG workshops/conferences for all possible implementing partners.• Develop a website, social page, flyers, brochures and advertising. • Introduce National awards for SDGs Ambassadors and quiz competitions in schools to engage pre-youths.Partnership and Networks• Actively seek a wide range of national partners i.e. funding, training, marketing, ICT, R & D, etc. • Identify regional and international partners and networks in all thrusts of SDGs. Capacity Building and Staff Development • Build upon Institute’s taskforce and expertise including implementing partners’ skills. • Link to ongoing regional and international SDG Capacity Building and Staff Development initiatives.Research and Development • Create research and development agenda for SDGs in higher learning institutions.• Disseminate SDGs research, development and innovative practices to the public Monitoring and Evaluation • Develop indicators to assess the impact of the education on SDGs to youths.• Gather baseline data on the youths engaged in sustainable development and set up longitudinal studies.• Use data from and other related initiatives to track progress on the participation of youths in sustainable development.• Engage external evaluators.

To reinforce its mission, the Institute will develop structured strategic partnerships with regional and international Universities that can help to integrate a broader set of perspectives into the engagement of youths in sustainable development, and can help them not only to generate new knowledge, but also to implement robust solutions to Africa’s most pressing problems. The Institute shall focus on two approaches in promoting youth engagement in sustainable development as described below:Youth Education on Sustainable Development Goals.The Institute in collaboration with its partners will offer an intense training program on all the 17 sustainable development goals. The program will have a total duration of one month with one a full day module per each sustainable development goal. The Institute with the help of its partners will identify suitable and qualified facilitators for each SDG session. The facilitators must have hands on experience on the subject matter and overall SDGs. It will be open to all the young people aged between 15 and 35 and will be offered on a cost recovery model. Learners are expected to enroll for this program at their own cost. In the event of financial assistance received, this will help in covering the costs of tutorial expertise and thereby lowering or eliminating the fees that would otherwise be required from learners. Upon completion of the program, learners will graduate with a Certificate of Completion in Youth Engagement for Sustainable Development. Youth Engagement for Sustainable Development Dialogues As a way of getting recommendations from the young people on how to implement these SDGs in their local communities, the Institute will also organize multi-level dialogues i.e. village, provincial and national. The dialogues will consist of a series of public meetings and workshops both at local and national levels. Youth participants will be drawn across all classes and segments of the society including the underprivileged and marginalized groups without any discrimination. All proceedings of the dialogues will be recorded using possible data capturing methods such as audio-visual and written. At every dialogue, resolutions will be adopted and validated by the participants before archived for use at next levels of dialogue and for future references. As a follow-up mechanism and dialogue continuation strategy, the Institute will also create online discussion platforms using social networks and other ICT tools and applications to be developed. Online dialogues will be open but managed by the Institute for outcome management.

Information and Communication Technology Association of Zimbabwe, Mutare Regional Centre of Expertise