At UNIC Rabat event on the SDGs, Moroccan students advocate for a stronger UN role in global finance governance, asking that “no one be left behind”.
According to the World Bank, young people in Morocco make up 30% of the population and one tenth of the North African region’s youth population. Their inclusion and empowerment are key prerequisites for sustainable development, as recently highlighted by UNDP’s Arab Human Development Report 2016.
The country’s “National Youth Strategy” focuses on increasing their access to economic opportunities, improving education, and facilitating active participation in public service and decision-making.
On 20 April, the Director of UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Rabat gave a lecture on Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals to postgraduate students of economics and law at the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Social Sciences of Rabat Souissi.
The lecture and question and answer session provided an opportunity for students and their professors to learn about all aspects of the SDGs. For example, they discussed the SDG review mechanisms and the challenges facing implementation, especially in terms of financing.
During the debate, students brought up the importance of the United Nations playing a stronger role in the governance of global finances to ensure it is in line with its universal principles of “leaving no one behind”.
The debate reflected the diversity of the disciplines at the school. While discussing partnerships, law students evoked the linkages between issues such as governance, rule of law, and human rights as they relate to development and investment.
On the other hand, economics students seemed more inclined to question partnerships and trade as levers of sustainable development. They raised topics such as financing sustainable development, the relationship between the UN system and the Bretton Woods institutions, statistics and data collection to monitor the SDGs, and global finance architecture.
Youth, like these students, are at the heart of Morocco’s UN Development Assistance Framework priorities. They are also key supporters of the UN agencies, funds, and programmes in Morocco.
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