“Young people may be called the ‘torchbearers’ of the 2030 Agenda, since they have a pivotal role to play not just as beneficiaries of actions and policies under the Agenda, but rather as partners and participants in its implementation.”
https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/youth
“The growing youth population has enormous potential. Investing in young people can yield boundless results in terms of poverty reduction, employment generation and food and nutrition security. After all, they are the farmers, workers and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. These young women and men are key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and indeed, to our planet’s future.”
(International Fund for Agricultural Development).
- The LAUF SDG Café initiative in collaboration with UNGSII Foundation, Switzerland invites youth in High Schools, College / University to participate in a program to become ‘torchbearers’.
- Build knowledge and skills to design and implement local community actions in areas close to your heart and further a Sustainable Development Goal for your community, State or Province and Country.
- The transferable skills you develop in this program are essential to all work and academic environments.
The 'Smart' in Smart Villages
LAUF’s endeavour is to empower disadvantaged youth and their communities to enable them to become ‘Smart Villages’. We refer to a Smart community where everyone gets an opportunity to discover their potential and manifest it. Smart communities are able to create new knowledge by combining indigenous knowledge with other knowledge to address their challenges. Learning and sharing is at the core of ‘prosperity for all’.
Building Skills, Self-Esteem and contributing to Sustainable Development Goals that matter locally
This program seeks to build skills and self-esteem among youth by helping them:
- identify and take ownership of change initiatives in their community;
- rediscover strengths in traditional practices of their communities;
- gain skills and confidence to learn, evaluate and adapt traditional practices to address current community challenges within the SDG framework.
Youth Energy Can Help Reverse Losses of Ethnocide
- Many communities all over the world have experienced a degree of change precipitated and driven by ‘external or forced contact’ distinct from self-initiated voluntary contact. ‘Forced Contact’ was often through invasion or multi-generational dominance by external players that resulted in violent conversion to systems and practices alien to the non-consenting host. Invariably, pre-contact societies were changed- not of their own volition. Many of these societies over generations, focused on regaining political self-governance. Even when these efforts were successful, maintaining, nourishing and adapting of cultural practices was a low priority.
- Sustainable empowerment requires proactive affirmations that remove barriers to developing self-esteem. An important component of this process is recognizing endogenous strengths. This program will help youth to reflect, discover and adapt with pride. LAUF believes that youth energy can help reverse losses of ethnocide which, as defined by the American Bar Association is, “the destruction of culture while keeping the people”.
- Youth will frame ways forward from the strengths of local cultures delivering on chosen SDGs for their community.
Participating Schools, Institutions, and Community Youth Groups
Each participating School, Institution, Community Youth Group will be provided:
- Online virtual training and facilitation
- A separate presence on our SDG Café site to showcase and share their work as well invite local supporters.
- Available opportunities to share their work internationally
An SDG Mirror for Small and Medium Enterprises
- As acknowledged by the World Economic Forum, “The estimated 400 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) worldwide account for approximately 90% of all businesses, 70% of employees, and 50% of global GDP.”
- A paper in the West Science Business and Management Vol. 3, No. 01, March 2025 concludes that it is possible to achieve the true potential of MSMEs towards sustainable development by promoting stakeholder cooperation and structural barriers elimination.
- SMEs and MSMEs can write us at SDGCafe@learnanduplift.org to learn more about Media Tenor can develop a SDG Mirror for your organization.
High Schools, Educational Institutions, Community Youth Groups email us at SDGCafe@learnanduplift.org to learn more and participate and join the growing number of SDG Cafes from Northern Ontario to North East India.