About The Youth Sustainable
Development
Network

About The Youth Sustainable Development Network

We are championing a cause for an expansive mindset development that is essential in distilling and advancing SDG knowledge in the younger generation for the prompt realization of the 2030 Agenda.

Our Story.

Since 2019, the Youth Sustainable Development Network (YSDN) embarked on a journey to enhance knowledge building and social entrepreneurship development, which is crucial in achieving the UN 2030 and the 2063 Africa agenda. The YSDN firmly believes that young people need to be enlightened and be provided with resources to take action towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We are aligned with SDG four as we educate the youth about the importance of achieving the 17 goals while guiding them towards the development of positive social impact projects.

Globally, we also look forward to implementing grassroots projects across different communities. In achieving these long term goals, we believe that the fundamental measure of our success will be the value we create for our stakeholders over the long term period.

This value will be a direct result of our ability to make huge contributions to solving the world’s biggest challenges – ranging from climate change, youth development, poverty and inequality. Even though youth are a critical stakeholder for us, we have continued to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach in delivering our core mission (i.e private and public sectors, international organizations and civil societies). At YSDN, we can imagine the future and we care about it. We know we are part of a story that started long before we can remember and continues long beyond. We sense we are born at a time of important change and we feel the responsibility to make sure that change delivers our outcomes.

Our Guiding Principles

We understand the power of the young people in driving social change which is why we are motivated by this generation of future minded young people who are desirous of making the world a better place through consistent use of their voice and taking the right action towards seeing that their immediate environment is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable for the future.

International Diplomacy and Doctrines

Guided by the global standards and doctrines for international diplomacy, we are harkening to the universal call to action that will put an end to poverty, create a sustainable planet where peace and prosperity is a common shared phenomenon.

Teamwork

At the Youth Sustainable Development Network, every youth embraces experiential learning, confronts a range of global topics and our shared value of unceasing teamwork allows us to propose innovative solutions.

Continuous Awareness

Because we believe that we can strongly bring about a prolific solution to the 2030 Agenda, we devote ourselves to the principle that has helped us in our continuous creation of awareness and driving conversation that could pioneer deep-rooted change and revolutionary accomplishment of the SDGs.

Our Management Team

Anita Otele
Policy Analyst
Jewel Ndung'u
Policy Analyst
Shubhi Arora
Policy Analyst
Faisal Mohammed Zakar
Senior Research Analyst

What We Do

Youth Education on Sustainable Development Goals

“The future of humanity and of our planet lies in our hands. It lies also in the hands of today's younger generation who will pass the torch to future generations.” The 2030 Agenda, paragraph 53.

Our development priorities, as outlined in the 2030 Agenda, can only be realized if the youth, who are undoubtedly the driving force for social development, are properly educated on what the SDGs are. The intricacies of the 2030 Agenda and the inherent success are deeply reliant on how well-informed the young people are. Their knowledge, reach and innovative solutions are essential if sustainable development is to be realized.

Policy Recommendation

To realize the 2030 Agenda as a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and our shared planet, we have realized that young people need to be included in the decision making processes and policy recommendation stages for this blueprint. Therefore, at the Youth Sustainable Development Network, we delight ourselves in working and partnering with young people in the grass root across the world for the realization of our shared common goals.

Implementation of Sustainable Project

We strongly believe in action as building consciousness through action is preeminent for the success of the 2030 Agenda. External financing is one of the most crucial pillars for the implementation of the SDGs and the Youth Sustainable Development Network is dedicated towards augmenting the required tools and financing, through important partnerships and consistent roundtable conversation, to implement sustainable grassroot projects and facilitate adequate global outreach.

Environmental, Social and Governance Consulting

Now more than ever before, ESG Reporting has become key in ensuring that businesses and organizations maximize profits and achieve their goals while maintaining optimum sustainability measures. On the above basis, we work with associates consultants and researchers to provide strategy, implementation guides and recommendations for organizations towards ensuring that they become sustainable stakeholders and partners in creating a sustainable global environment.

Partners

Our partners have worked with us to deliver ever more innovative, effective and successful projects and programmes. They have walked and worked with us as we consistently lend our voices in the conglomeration of stakeholders that matter to our mission, and their support has been vital in achieving the impacts that are essential towards making the world a better place.

Maame Boateng

Advisory Board Member

Maame Boateng is a partnerships manager at the Africa-Europe Foundation and formerly an Associate at the Executive Office of the UN Special Representative and CEO for Sustainable Energy for All. Before moving to New York to join the UN, Maame spent her early career in South Africa as a lawyer dealing in climate justice matters in relation to displaced persons across the African continent.

Maame was part of the team that led the first SEforALL Youth Summit which brought over 2,000 youth participants from 134 countries to the table to inspire active participation in the achievement of SDGs by 2030 and Net Zero by 2050.

Maame previously worked at the United Nations Global Compact, where her role encompassed supporting the mobilization of public-private partnerships in support of the 2030 Agenda.

David Kahale

Advisory Board Member

David Kahale has been the Chief Executive Officer of Panta Group since 2016 and has represented Panta in all international settings, including international development consulting, infrastructure planning, and policymaking.

David holds a Bachelor Degree in Business (Marketing) and a Bachelor of Arts (International Relations, Asian Studies, and Philosophy) from Western Sydney University.

David is an advocate of sustainable and equitable development, dedicated to providing universal access to essential services through innovative mobile technologies.

David was a World Bank Group Delegate – Smart Cities for a Resilient Future (2019), and Resilient Recovery (2021). He also went on to win the first-ever team-based Deloitte Case Study Challenge (2019).

David has consulted and advised many high-level Government Boards in Southeast Asia in areas of mobility and smart city development. He has also assisted government working groups in drafting policies and national standards for digital payments, digital identification and automated fare collection on public transport. David has also been a stakeholder and a major supporting voice of the Philippines’ flagship infrastructure project, the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).

Taylor Spicer

Advisory Board Member

Taylor joined Emory University’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives as a graduate intern in 2013 and became the Assistant Director in 2020.. She works closely with Emory Dining to support their efforts to source more food locally and sustainably and to co-manage the weekly Emory Farmers Market. She also runs the WaterHub student docent program, the OSI intern program, and the Zero Waste Ambassadors outreach group. Taylor also manages OSI’s daily communications platforms and strategies.

Taylor has conducted leading research on land rights in Rwanda, social movements in Northeast Brazil, effects of gender norms on climate adaptation for smallholder farmers in Kenya and Ghana, and intimate partner violence prevention in Vietnam,giving her a broad and interdisciplinary context to champion behavior change and community engagement.

Damilola Hamid Balogun

Chief Executive Officer

Damilola is a passionate youth, thought leader, lawyer and international development consultant with over six years’ hands-on experience in advisory service provision, collaborative research, youth-led advocacy, facilitation of participatory processes, and a track record of meaningful impact on youth, communities, and institutions inclusion in sustainable development affairs.