Mrs. Graça Machel and president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana are Sustainable Development Goal champions. On the 6th of May, they hosted the first ever Inter-Generational Dialogue in Accra Ghana. These dialogues aim at setting the tone for global discussions among Young Future Leaders, City Mayors, Captains of Business and Civil Society Leaders to deliberate on their aspirations for what a better world should look like. About 500 delegates drawn from different sectors of the country attended the event including members of the Diplomatic Corp.
The Accra Inter-Generational Dialogue follows president Nana Akufo-Addo’s announcement (as the co-chair of the UN SDG Advocates Group) at the Global Citizen event in December 2018 that Ghana would get the ball rolling by hosting the inaugural Inter-Generational Dialogue in Accra to help forge the connection between peace and development in the country and world-wide. This is the first of a series of the dialogues that will be followed through-out 2019.
Mrs. Machel’s address: Don’t leave anyone behind
In her remarks she challenged young people to take advantage of the knowledge they have with technology to advocate and work with African leaders to address the crisis situations that exist on the continent. She reminded the young people that the Global Peace Inter-Generational Dialogues were created to give young people a voice in shaping the future. She alluded to the fact that by allowing other people to be left behind in the fast-paced nature of the society, the world was breeding a fear for the future that leads to anxiety results in people resorting to racial, religious, ethnic, and other identity prejudices which leads to extremist behaviour.
Here are four challenging things she presented to the world at the dialogue:
- How do we build a new set of values in the world that allows us to build empathy, tolerance, and respect for each other so that the recent terror attacks in New Zealand and Sri Lanka never happen again?
- How do we build inclusive economies locally and globally so that as our populations grow and our resources diminish, we can have an equitable distribution of our common goods so that humanity survives and prospers together leaving no one behind?
- How do we protect our environment so that our world survives so that poor people and vulnerable people do not have to die because they cannot protect themselves and because our greed to develop at the expense of others have led us to destroy our common endowment the environment we inhabit together?
- How do we share our knowledge so that patents and intellectual property do not prevent us from saving lives how do we balance between compensating people for their hard work in research and development on one hand and saving lives on the other hand?
Learn more about the Graça Machel trust here
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.