Concept Note on INSTACON SDG 2019

2ND INTERNATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS CONFERENCE ON SDGs 2019 (INSTACON-SDG19) 28th October – 1st November 2019
Theme: Localising the SDGs at Subnational level in Nigeria: Gains, Opportunities, and Challenges
SUB-THEMES
  1. Intersectionality and Working Together to Localise the SDGs (Goal: 8,10, 16, 17)
  2. Education for Sustainable Development: Learning to Act; Learning to Achieve (Goal:4, 8, 10, 16)
  3. Implementing SDGs: Actions and policies needed and barriers to overcome. (Goal: 4, 16,17)
  4. Nutrition: a maker and marker of development to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal. (Goal: 2,3,4,8,10,16,17)
  5. Health Inequities, Social Determinants, and Intersectionality (Goal: 2, 3, 10, 16)
  6. Inequalities: The Bane of Realization of SDGs – Issues and Insights (Goals 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 17).
  7. Peace and Security at Subnational Levels: Curtailing intractable challenges of sectarian conflicts, killings, radicalization and extremism, banditry, armed robberies (Goal:1,2, 4,5,8, 10, 11, 16,17)
INTRODUCTION

In September 2015, Member States of the United Nations adopted an ambitious plan to eradicate poverty, fight hunger, tackle climate change and save the planet from environmental degradation. This global agenda, according to the UN, is a plan of action for people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, are to implement this plan. At the national level, the government of Nigeria in January 2016 being committed to implementing the 17 Goals together with its 169 targets, started off by putting in place the Presidential Council on SDGs, the Private Sector Advisory Group on SDGs and Policy framework for implementation roadmap. But this does not address the challenges of implementing SDGs at sub-national level.

Nigeria runs a federal system with three tiers of government, where each of the states has its own autonomous plan. Both the state and the local governments have prerogatives completely separate from the Federal Government to implement SDGs being closer to the people even at the grassroots. However, most states and local governments are still lagging behind because of lack of a clear policy framework to mainstream the SDGs at their own levels. An effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the 17 SDGs demands the adoption of a multi-stakeholder approach with a clear strategy to accelerate the process.

However, in 2018, Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development (CSCSD) Ogun State chapter organised the 1st International Stakeholders Conference on SDGs (INSTACON-SDG18) with the themeAchieving Sustainable Development Goals in Ogun State through Integrated and Innovative PartnershipApproach”.It was the first international conference at the sub-national ever organized by anybody or group in Nigeria. Since then lots of progress and gains have been achieved due to the convergence and moving further of the coalition on the monitoring of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Nigeria. Since an international conference like this should involve the stakeholders, CSCSD at the national level is more than ready to leverage on the gains and outcome of the first conference in order to shoulder the responsibility of organizing the Second International Stakeholders Conference on SDGs in 2019 (2nd INSTACON-SDGs-19).

The scale and ambition of this four-year old agenda calls for smart partnerships, as well as integrated and innovative approaches to sustainable development. It calls for collective action at all levels since no one nation, sector or segment of society, acting alone can achieve SDGs. Certainly, governments, acting alone, will not deliver the SDGs. Through the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development framework, nation states have recognized the imperative of a revitalized partnership in successfully implementing the SDGs. The indicators of successes of the implementation of SDGs are much more reflected at the local and grassroots levels than at the national level. Therefore, paramount is an intensive global, national and local level engagement in support of implementation of all the goals and targets bringing together governments, civil society, the private sector, the academia, media and other non-state actors and mobilizing all available resources with a special focus at the sub-national level. This therefore is a reflection and thrust of this 2nd INSTACON-SDGs-19 – Localizing the SDGs at Subnational Level in Nigeria: Gains, Opportunities and Challenges.

OBJECTIVES
  1. To facilitate the emergence of an inclusive state institutional arrangement to reflect local content for an effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda;
  2. To develop a robust roadmap for mainstreaming the SDG at the sub-national level;
  3. To present and exchange lessons, innovations, experiences and perspectives in developing and adapting national policy framework capacities in light of the SDGs;
  4. To identify and promote grassroots specific public policies that create real changes to reduce inequalities across gender, sectors, cultures and regions;
  5. To identify opportunities for complementing governments’ efforts towards domestic resource mobilisation for SDGs implementation.
  6. To set the tone for civil society’s input to Nigeria’s VNR paper and or come up with a shadow report or SDG Spotlight against 2020 HLPF on SDGs;
  7. To provide an exclusive platform for the youth and provoke their understanding of the 2030 Agenda in relation to issues affecting them so as to be engaging the governments and other stakeholders.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES

The conference will assess progress made, identify existing barriers, bottlenecks and challenges, and exchange experiences and share good practices amongst participants on ways for overcoming these;

  • INSTACON-SDGs-19 will provide a platform for effective collaboration and partnership among private sector, government, civil society, media and academia towards effective mainstreaming and implementing agenda 2030 at sub-national level.
  • The conference will assess progress made on SDGs implementation, identify existing challenges, and proffer solutions accordingly;
  • To be significantly improved is the participants’ knowledge about the inter-linkage of the three dimensions of sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda plan for action;
  • Enhanced awareness of integrated approaches for the development and implementation of State and local government level development strategies through the development of a community of practice and the establishment of data revolution think tank group.
  • To be produced is the conference proceeding of selected expert papers on key topics discussed at the conference including state-level and local government level case studies;
  • The conference would come up with a set of concrete recommendations for strengthening the implementation of SDG at sub-national level, and this would be presented to the relevant stakeholders;
  • The conference would set in motion the modalities for setting up Council for Sustainable Development at the state level and SDG Clubs in Secondary Schools in Nigeria.
  • To be established is the building block for SDG 16+ which underpins other 16 goals of the SDGs so as to have an intensified campaign in achieving SDGs by 2030.
PARTICIPANTS

Participants expected for INSTACON-SDG19 are actors from Africa, Europe, Asia, North American and the Caribbean. Experts in Development work from National, sub-national and Local level, the Government of all 36 State, Legislatives, MDAs, Organised Private Sector, Professional group, Academia, Media, Trade Unions, LGAs, LCDAs, CSOs, FBOs, CDAs, PWDs, Traditional institutions, Ethnic and minority groups, Artisans, Women groups, Youth, Labour Unions and other non-state actors

ORGANISATION PROCEDURE

Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development (CSCSD) will lead the planning of the INSTACON-SDGs-19 in partnership with all the 36 state governments and particularly the six state governments of the south west geo-political zone. CSCSD is a coalition of close to 2000 registered civil society and nongovernmental organizations, professional associations, academia, and individuals spread across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. CSCSD National Steering Committee (NSC) is committed to making INSTACON-SDGs-19 hosting, practical and feasible for all CSCSD members and participants. To achieve this goal, NSC has made conference planning and management a shared responsibility between the host state, local organizing committee (LOC) and NSC.

The following committees have been set up and working accordingly: Local Organizing Committee; Publication and Technical Paper Committee; Resource Allocation, Advocacy and Mobilisation Committee; Media and ICT/IEC Committee; Registration Committee; Security and Protocol Committee; Finance Committee; First Aid Committee; Arbitration Committee; Pre-Conference Youth Committee etc. With this arrangement, LOC and hosts can concentrate on aspects of conference organization that can best be done by those with local knowledge, technical skills and capacity. To this end, CSCSD-NSC assumes the intellectual ownership of the conference including the main responsibility for the program and sponsorship opportunities. LOC takes on most of the financial and technical administration while the conference host concentrates on logistical matters.

TIMING AND DURATION

The event is scheduled to hold between Monday 28th October and Friday 1st November 2019. Specifically, it would be a three-day conference with arrival on Monday and departure Friday as well as tourism day for those who are interested who may now depart on Saturday. On the day of arrival, there would be dinner arranged for international participants with the pre-conference for youth holding the same day (youth must have arrived on Sunday).

The conference will consist of a total of five plenary sessions apart from the opening ceremony. This will include three morning sessions and two afternoon sessions each day. The tentative sessions will be published on the conference website.

The conference will be designed to provide all participants with multiple space for engagement and networking. A mix of plenary sessions and parallel strands on a range of topics will be organized, using a variety of formats including key note speakers, paper presentations, and panel discussions/pitches, as well as innovative arrangements that facilitate more informal discussion and sharing of experiences between partners.

VENUE

June 12 Cultural Centre Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

PROCEEDINGS

All documentation and presentations will be made available to participants in electronic format. The electronic proceedings will be published as a journal.

DECORATION OF SDG CHAMPIONS

The conference would provide the opportunity to identify some individuals designated as SDGs Champions to be given SDGs awards. The selected individuals for SDGs champions will be individuals from Nigeria that have made their mark in various fields of leadership, art, music, movie, entertainment, science etc. They are selected to facilitate change by popularizing SDGs, advocating and mobilizing resources for SDGs, and creating awareness through their positions on the 2030 Agenda and the 17 SDGs.

The selected individual for SDGs champions will be individuals from Nigeria that have made their mark in various fields of Art, Entertainment, Music, Movie, Leadership, Science etc. They are selected to facilitate change by popularizing, advocating, mobilizing and creating awareness through their skills on the 17 SDGs

PARTNERSHIP SUPPORT
  • Expected Partnership Support from State Government
    Target 17of Goal 17 of the SDGs calls for promotion of effective public, private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships. To this end CSCSD hereby seeks partnership support from the government at the state level for the following:
    • Mobilisation and sponsorship of at least 6 senior level delegates per state from MDAs, LGAs, LCDAs, as participants
    • Customization of IEC material from all states depicting state SDGs activities;
    • Financial support for logistical exigencies including payment for venue, feeding;
    • Media coverage of event by state-owned media;
    • Hosting of international participants to dinner and befitting hotel accommodation.
  • Expected Partnership Support from The Wife of the State Governors
    The wives of our governors have an important role to play as animators and influencers to mobilise and engage other actors like women in business, private sector group and other allies to take action and key-in to the conference activities for exhibition and networking. To this end, partnership support shall include:
    • Mobilisation and sponsorship for at least 40 women delegates from CSO, youth, PWDs, as participants;
    • Customised SDG branded products for awareness creation;
    • Financial support for other exigencies; and
    • Mobilisation of private sector for exhibition space and donation of products.
  • Expected Partnership Support from The State House of Assembly Members
    If the SDG goals are to be achieved in Nigeria, the state house of assembly must play a significant and informed role. The laws needed to create the legal framework for the SDGs will have to be scrutinized and adopted by the legislators. The annual state budget that allocates funding for SDGs implementation will need to be passed by the legislators. The legislators must also monitor the implementation of the SDGs by the government to verify that it is appropriate in local contexts. They must represent their constituents so as to promote citizen participation in the implementation of the SDGs. To this end, partnership support shall include:
    • Mobilisation and sponsorship of at least 10 delegates from CDAS, CBOs, youth, and political actors as participants from their constituents.
    • Sponsorship of parallel sessions with branded and customized SDGs material for 1000 delegates.
  • Expected Partnership Support from Private sector
    The private sector has a critical role to play as a source of finance, as a source of driver of innovation and technological development, and as key engine of economic growth and employment. To this end, partnership support shall include:
    • Customized SDG branded products for awareness creation;
    • Support for printing of journals, program of event, pull-up banners, flexy banner back-drop;
    • Financial support for other exigencies and;
    • Sponsorship of parallel session with branded and customized SDGs material, Participants Lunch and Tea break for 1000 delegates.
  • Expected Partnership Support from Media sector
    • Provision of Space for interviews with major conference stakeholders including top government functionaries, Civil Society Actors, international agencies and leaders of Organised Private Sector;
    • Pre-event promotion including news, jingles and media coverage of events;
    • Airing documentary/ featured articles on SDG implementation in Nigeria.
      Media Institutions Benefits
      • Quality information on SDG to enrich program & news content;
      • Interaction and partnership with international agencies for support;
      • Display of logo on conference website, program brochures, publications and banners; and
      • Space for exhibition of media institution for onsite engagement with local & international participants.
CONFERENCE TIMELINES
  1. Call for abstracts from now till July 30, 2019
  2. Review of abstracts July 31 to August 30, 2019
  3. Conference week: Arrival – October 28, 2019
  4. Opening and technical sessions – October 29-31, 2019
  5. Departure: November 1, 2019
REGISTRATION FEES
  1. Early bird registration till August 30, 2019: N12,500
  2. Normal registration: N15,000
  3. Student registration: N7,500
  4. Registration for international participants: N$75 early bird till August 30, 2019 and $100 for normal registration

ACCOUNT FOR PAYMENT

Justice Development and Peace Commission JDPC-CSCSDGs Zenith Bank Plc; Account No 1015521779, Ijebu Ode

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Local Organizing Committee
2ND INSTACON-SDGs-19
INSTACON19@cscsdev.org
08033276770, 08033492235, 08082008222

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