Anny Osabutey – The UN office of the UN Envoy on Monday announced 17 young leaders around the world to work on the sustainable development goals. From different professional backgrounds including medicine, agriculture and human rights, the 17 will spend the rest of the year working with UN focus groups in their respective countries towards the realization of the goals.
In all, 18,000 persons were nominated and the number was cut to the current, before the announcement. As part of their work with the UN, the Young Leaders will meet with world leaders at this year’s summit, put before them the issues affecting them and why action, and not talks, is what they need this time around.
The UN Secretary General Youth Envoy Ahmad Alhendawi, who announced the 17, said the group represents the unique work young person’s the world over are doing in order to bring solutions to the issues from their communities. According to him, the current generation of young people are determined it change the direction things are done for them, insisting “we don’t want to leave regrets for the next generation in the future.”
One of the 17, Rita Kimani from Kenya, operates a FarmDrive, which helps smallholder farmers in Kenya to access loans, so they can improve on their yields and their lives. She was hopeful the opportunity as a UN YL will go a long way to growing her business so she brings relief to Kenyan farmers she was confident it will equally inspire other young people around the world to put their intellect to good use.
