WATCH

Speaking as one of the patrons at the annual African Youth SDGs summit, African Monitor Director Ms. Namhla Mniki-Mangaliso had this to say:

“If we do not understand how urgent and desperately needed the young voice is, just in defining what the problem is; if your voice is absent in those spaces, it means we misdiagnose the problem. It means the policies we put in place do not adequately deal with the problem.

How transformative can policies be if they are not based on an honest narrative of what is going on in our continent?

We are not serious enough about facing head-on the problems we have. Because we sit with leaders that have forgotten the primary mandate of serving people.

At some point, we’ve got to understand that if this transformation around the SDGs is going to happen in this continent, we will have to become revolutionary. You see, revolution is a mental exercise.

Yes, the revolution has to happen, but revolution is not about taking up arms. You have to position yourself differently around the wisdom, knowledge and the information you have and how you’re using it for your own good.”