Digital Transformation for the SDGs and Youth Rights

The uncertainty and crises characterizing our global context today calls for risk-informed strategic planning and policy-making to identify emerging trends and seize opportunities to transform the future. As such the United Nations initiated a Noontime Knowledge series of consultations to give youth the space to have their voices heard about the issues that affect the future of their country and our planet.

Hosted in collaboration with academia each session brings together students, experts, researchers, advocates, and/or practitioners for 60-minute discussions on key strategic issues for Mauritius and Seychelles to:

1. Inform youth about the latest and emerging global and regional trends and their possible impact on the two countries both risks and opportunities.
2. Share experiences and stories from young “game-changers” acting at the local level to make transformations happen.
3. Listen to key solutions proposed by the youth, to feed in the dialogue at national, regional, and global levels, including the main global events (COP, SDG Summit, Food Systems Summits, etc.).

The first session of the Noontime Knowledge was organized in December 2022 with the students of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Mauritius, and it explored the COP27 outcomes and their implications for small island states (SIDS) like Mauritius and Seychelles.

The second edition was co-organized with the Students’ Environmental Club of the Charles Telfair Campus. It focused on food security and youth action, linking national debates and actions from the global dialogue around the Food Systems Summit with the next Summit to be held in July.

The most recent in the Noontime Knowledge series brought together youth advocates from UN Youth Seychelles, young entrepreneurs, students and teachers from the ITC course at the University of Seychelles, and United Nations experts to discuss how to harness digital transformation to boost progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and foster youth empowerment in the lead up to the SDG Summit being held in September.