Celebrating Zimbabwe’s youth achievers

Young women and men in Zimbabwe have proven again and again that they are ready and willing to contribute to the inclusive growth and sustainable development of the country.

social and political powerhouse. There is no short-cut to prosperity and unfortunately good ideas are not good enough; so much hinges on action and delivering concrete results. As such, economic recovery and inclusive growth will be determined by how active the young people will be in this endeavour.

We also encourage the Government and business leaders to include young people into critical positions, such as the boards of State-owned enterprises, parastatals and private entities.

The United Nations will bring to the table its complementary support at every step to assist the nation in its development trajectory and in creating an ecosystem for entrepreneurship to thrive in Zimbabwe.

The United Nations remains a strong partner to the Government and people of Zimbabwe. The mutual respect, confidence, trust and collaboration have seen Zimbabwe and the UN through all weather.

The United Nations’ recent engagement with Government, Parliament, development partners, civil society and the private sector including young entrepreneurs, the media and many others has been to create strong partnership around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals.

In this regard, the United Nations in Zimbabwe through its five-year strategic framework, the 2016-2020 Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (ZUNDAF), has so far delivered US$812 million in projects and programmes between 2016-2017 accounting for 62 percent of Official Development Assistance to the country.

I don’t intend to bore you with details: check our website www. zw.one.un.org for more information. However, allow me to highlight a few key areas of our work that could be of interest for the young Zimbabweans to engage and partner with the United Nations:

First, the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that Zimbabwe like the rest of the world committed to achieve by 2030 requires strong engagement in advocacy and mobilisation of the young people which represent 68 percent of the population.

These are ambitious and integrated goals ranging from ending poverty, hunger, inequality, to protecting the environment, achieving gender equality, quality education, health, energy and peace, justice and strong intuitions.

As business leaders, artists, professionals, advocates — depending on your affiliation to specific goals — please champion at least one goal.

Second, join hands in the fight against social ills of gender-based violence, child marriages, corruption and HIV and AIDS. Read the full article on www. herald.co.zw