Deepathi Dasun, (In charge of team and SUNFO Global Team Leader - Sri Lanka) Sanah Mahajan, (Co-chairman of Team, India) Kefas Victor (Co-chairman of Team - Nigeria) Dr. Deshapriya S, Wijetunge (Director General-SUNFO-Sri Lanka) P. Ruwan Dayajeewa De Silva, (Advisor/Sustainable Development Diplomacy Governor-Sri Lanka) and Sustainable Development Diplomacy Governor, Ruwan De Silva, who made presentations at the event.
Innovation is the best tool towards eradication poverty and governments should promote and assist innovative ideas especially by youth said Youth Leader from India, Sana Mahajan.
She was speaking at the “SUNFO (Sri Lankan-United Nationalities Friendship Organization) “Global Federation-International Youth Wing” hosted 17th International Youth Workshop on “Sustainable Development Goals –SDG9 “ Industry, innovation and Infrastructure” held on Zoom recently.
“When you talk about poverty, innovation leads to the eradication of poverty. When you talk about education or hunger, you think about innovation to curb the whole cause,” she said.
“When we talk about living, we talk about infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities we talk about life on land, we talk about life on water, and we talk about everything else. When we have a very strong innovation, our justice system, our social inequality we bring about the peace, justice and the other institutions in the picture.”
Director General for Sunfo, Deshapriya Wijetunge said that earlier there were 8 Millennium Development Goals and later they were renamed as Sustainable Development Goals and increased to 17. “Also the period to achieve these goals was fixed for another 15 years commencing from January 2016 and ending in December 2030 and these were inked 193 world governments and leaders at the special UN General Assembly held in September 2015.
These 17 SDG goals and its allied 169 targets are a part of transforming our world the 2030 sustainable development which was adopted by these 193 member states at the historic UN General Assembly Summit in September 2015. These SDG’s have been developed through an unprecedented process which brought national governments and millions of citizens from across the globe together to negotiate and adopt this ambitious agenda.
The key five core values of sustainable development goals centre on People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership.
“Now in order to achieve these goals youth have a special role.” Technological progress is also a key to finding lasting solutions to both economic and environmental challenges such as providing new jobs and promoting energy efficiency. Our energy systems are going to be changed in the coming 15 years.
Today more than 4 million people still do not have access to the internet and 90% are from the developing world. Bridging this digital divide is crucial to ensure equal access to information and knowledge as well as to foster innovation and entrepreneurships.
“So we have to focus in the future in this action decade of SDG’s remaining 10 years and create green jobs, decent jobs and new knowledge for youth. This is essential for creating and enabling an environment that is conducive for sustainable and economic growth.”
Sustainable Development Diplomacy Governor and Honorary Advisor to Goal No. 9 (Infrastructure and Innovation) International Youth Workshop, Ruwan De Silva, making the key note speech said that it is obvious the success of achieving these goals will depend on the contribution of the young people who will go on to become leading professionals, academics, scientists, political leaders, business leaders and social workers. He said that the work shop centers around SDG goals 9 which talks on Innovation and Infrastructure.
That is, to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. As the name implies, this goal addresses three distinct areas namely industrialization, infrastructure and innovation. Even though they are distinct areas, they are also interrelated and implementation of one will contribute to the progress of others.
A proper infrastructure is necessary for industrial development and innovation can result in productivity improvement in industries and more sustainable ways of infrastructure development.
Infrastructure is a basic condition for economic growth and development of any country. Investment in infrastructure and innovation is crucial for economic development. As per UNDP, 2.3 billion people worldwide don’t have access to basic sanitation, 2.6 billion people do not have access to constant electricity and more than 4 billion people do not have access to Internet.
“It is found that the construction sector contributes to 23% of air pollution, 50% of the climatic change, 40% of drinking water pollution and 50% of landfill wastes. Therefore, sustainable infrastructure development that minimizes environmental destruction is a must.”
According to UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), largest growth in the carbon emissions has come from electricity generation, transport and industry. Therefore, Innovation in sustainable, environmental-friendly infrastructure development, transport and renewable energy are necessary to meet these challenges.
Construction activities due to infrastructure development can generate large amounts of waste materials that need to be disposed of. A large amount of construction waste is disposed in landfill sites. There is a potential to recycle many elements of construction waste.
“Therefore, investing in identifying and developing methods in mitigating construction waste and implementing processes to recycle construction waste will become a necessity if the world has to achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030. Innovation in more environmental friendly ways of designing and construction are necessary to address these burning issues. We need to enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities and encourage innovation.”
Investment in infrastructure will drive Industrialization and industrialization in turn is essential for development. Industry creates employment, generates income and contributes to poverty alleviation, promotes social inclusion and empowers women.
As industry develops, it enhances the need to increase value addition of raw materials through manufacturing. This in turn, needs and enhances the application of science, technology and innovation. The Governments need to promote greater investment in skills and education in order to develop science and technology. Investment in education will contribute towards achieving the other sustainable development goals.
While promoting large scale industrialization, it is vital to promote small-scale industrial and other enterprises by enabling access to investment, financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets.
The outcome of the workshops will be presented to ‘SUNFO Global Youth Conference and Award Ceremony” scheduled to be held in March 2021. Final declaration of this Conference will be submitted to UN Secretary General and Heads of States of all 196 Member Countries.
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