The 2nd African Youth SDGs Summit due to take place from 7 to 9 November 2018 at the Accra International Conference Centre, Ghana, will host Mr. Mabingue Ngom, the UNFPA Regional Director for West and Central Africa as Special Guest of Honor. He will address the over 1,000 delegates on the theme “Partnership with Youth to Achieve the SDGs: Moving from Policy to Actions.”
Mabingue Ngom is recognized for his efforts in promoting a culture of results and innovation, and in taking initiatives to address complex development challenges. He is a strong advocate of realizing the demographic dividend to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa’s Agenda 2063, the Africa We Want. A believer and trusted friend of the youth, Mabingue has been a promoter of the campaign #PutYoungPeopleFirst, launched in 2016, with over 3.6 Million estimated reach on social media.
Mr. Ngom has been the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Western and Central Africa Region (WCARO) Regional Director since January 2015. He joined UNFPA in 2008 as the Director of Programme Division based at UNFPA in New York (USA). He has also been UNFPA’s Emergency Director and an active member of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Emergency Directors Group (IASC) and UNFPA’s Representative to the High-level Committee on Programs of the Chief Executives Board (CEB) for Coordination. He has occupied several leadership positions at the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) in Geneva (Switzerland), at the International Planned Parenthood Federation Regional Office in Nairobi (Kenya) and in his own country (Senegal) where he was instrumental the development, management and monitoring of the country’s Public Investment Programs for over a decade.
The UNFPA Regional Director is an economist, a specialist of public policy and a certified change management expert with more than 30 years of experience in social and development policies at national, regional and global levels from government, INGOs and multilateral institutions.
Envisaged as an annual event, the African Youth SDGs Summit is aimed at elevating the African youth voices, concerns, insights and unleash the potential of the youth to play active role for co-generation of ideas and awareness on the SDGs and Agenda 2063.
The 2018 summit, the second in series will be themed “Partnership with Youth to Achieve the SDGs: Moving from Policy to Actions” and is expected to propose its roadmap for an SDG Youth Partnership Agenda.
‘’This will present countries with the opportunity to plan Goal by Goal, partnership arrangements with young people towards delivering results that are sustainable, youth-inclusive and comprehensively caters for the current and future needs of youth, It shall also take into consideration the current capabilities of young people and how they can contribute their skills to achievement of the national goals through co-implementation, delegation or devolution, where necessary’’
The African Youth SDGs Summit welcomed the official launch of Youth2030: The United Nations Youth Strategy, last 24th September 2018 at the United Nations in New York, by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
