Joshua Laban Musinguzi, the former Coordinator of the Parliamentary Forum for Labour, Decent Employment, and Productivity has officially taken over as the president of the youth Coalition for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Musinguzi an experienced, SDG, and gender-sensitive enthusiastic youth was elected as the president last week.
In a ceremonial function held at the SDG Secretariat yesterday, he together with his executive members took over power.
“My first 100 days will be focused on partnerships because the 16 SDGs rely on goal number 17 which is on partnerships,” he said
“We shall reach out to all MDAs, development partners like UN Women, UNICEF among others, and ensure that we track these goals by 2030. I will ensure that I meet different Ministers, and MDAs so that we create harmony and achieve them,” he added
Musinguzi who took over from his predecessor Edwin Muhuza said that his leadership will be based on five (Ps) which include; SDG for People, SDG for Planet, SDG for partnership, and SDG for prosperity.
”I want to emphasize that we shall continue from where our predecessors have stopped. We are setting up advisory committees and will ensure that the coordination of youth towards SDGs is done nationally,” he said
“We are empowering women to the coalition and the boy child as well, we want to ensure inclusiveness to everyone because this is a decade of action,”
Musinguzi told the congregation that his leadership will focus on SDG 17, which speaks about partnerships for other SDGs.
“And this will drive the rest of the 16 SDGs,” he said,
Muhumuza, the outgoing president urged Musinguzi to always serve the youth with resilience and hard work in order to achieve the goals by 2030.
“I have known Musinguzi for a long time, he is an ambitious man whom I truly and know will serve the youth diligently,” he said
“You don’t need to be in a position to be a leader so I urge all of you to offer necessary support to Laban so that we see the Coalition on the next level,” he said
Officiating the handover, Albert Byarugaba, the Technical Advisor of the SDG Secretariat said that government is ready to support the youth.
“We shall provide all necessary support to the Coalition for example in a few weeks we are giving them an Office here, we are engaging them in our meetings and supporting them in proposals,” he said
Musinguzi will run as the president of the Coalition for a period of two years.
Like his Boss, Robert Kayongo, the Secretary general of the coalition pledged to work hard to serve the youth.
“This is not a mere change of guards but a fundamental change, we can’t work in silos, that’s why I call upon all of you to hold us accountable, ask for information put us under pressure lets drive this together,” he said.
