Go Now!

In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) to replace the Millennial Development Goals (MDG’s) that expired that same year. These 17 SDG’s work collectively to tackle the pertinent issues affecting peoples across the world with the purpose of creating a better future for all. In the context of Seychelles, considering it has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 1.37 million km2 and a land area of just 455 km2, it is, therefore, no surprise that the country’s current and future prosperity is directly linked to its marine and coastal assets. This creates a unique scenario where all other SDG’s link back to SDG 14: Life below water, or the Blue Economy as it has been coined.

Since the shift to SDG’s, there has been a significant number of sustainable development projects implemented and research carried out by civil society organisations, educational institutions and other stakeholders in Seychelles. Most recently, with the increase in government initiatives and access to finance in the Blue Economy, many projects and research have focused on understanding, developing and promoting this important but largely untapped resource. Unfortunately, all these achievements and progress are under-emphasized by civil society’s limited capacity for outreach. Most organisations in Seychelles depend on members who are part-time volunteers in full-time employment, therefore they are not able to commit to a consistent outreach programme, especially in schools. As a consequence, there is a lack of youth involvement with organisations and projects that relate to the Blue Economy or the SDGs as a whole. Even more worrisome is that we have a generation of young people who are are not well-versed on sustainable practices, nor are they educated on the importance of sustainable development.

Go Now is a proposed social venture to be piloted in Seychelles that will act as the bridge between potential volunteers and civil society organisations that are actively working to promote, conduct research, or implement projects focused on the SDGs, especially the Blue Economy. Our goal is to see a drastic increase in the number of young people involved in volunteering opportunities related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to achieve this, a two-fold approach will be used. Firstly, Go Now will provide outreach services to civil society organisations in Seychelles who are SDG-focused, and secondly, create written and visual resources of the SDG-related work being done in Seychelles and translate this information into youth-friendly language. The materials will be available on our website and in hard copy, if needed.

This projects is in line with the Seychelles Blue Economy Strategic Framework and Roadmap and is consistent with the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 (SDG’s), Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2015). The main beneficiaries will be school students in secondary and post-secondary institutions, Civil society organisations, Non-governmental organizations, and all other stakeholders working towards the implementation of the SDG’s and the development of the Blue Economy in Seychelles.