Session 2: Building Equitable Partnerships
This event was held on 7 June 2021
Promoting socio-economic transformation in cities requires establishing partnerships on equitable terms across diverse stakeholders, including young people, for meaningful dialogue and collective action, ensuring sustainability and scaling up. Achieving this aim requires enabling systematic processes of learning, knowledge generation, and evidence building on what works and what does not to establish meaningful partnerships across sectors and actors.
In this session, moderated by the CEO of Radical Global, Shamoy Hajare, a global panel of speakers consisting of international development practitioners, youth experts, academics, and city officials will engage in an interactive dialogue around learning and evidence building on effective approaches, strategies, principles, and actions for establishing meaningful partnerships grounded in a shared vision, mutual respect and trust, equitable participation and accountability among a wide range of city stakeholders, including young people and marginalised communities.
The session was chaired by Dr. Stephanie Butcher, Research Fellow at Connected Cities Lab, the University of Melbourne. Short comments from Fondation Botnar were presented by Dr Susanna Hausmann.
The Evidence to Action for Young People’s Wellbeing in Southern Cities dialogue series is presented by the Connected Cities Lab at the University of Melbourne in partnership with Fondation Botnar.
Speakers
S. M. Shaikat
S. M. Shaikat is a youth development expert and policy advocate from Bangladesh. He is the Youth Advisor (Asia-Pacific) of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the Executive Director of SERAC-Bangladesh, a national-level youth-focused rights and development organization. In his capacity, he designs programs and supervises implementation in the fields. Shaikat also works as a consultant in development and communication with a number of international NGOs, and research firms in many countries including the US, UK, Malaysia, Thailand. He has also worked with a number of global youth agencies including as the Bangladesh Advisor to the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS; Country Coordinator for International Youth Alliance for Family Planning in Bangladesh; Ambassador for Young Men for Gender Equality; Founding Chair of the Youth Caucus, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition; Founding Executive Member, Commonwealth Youth Gender Equality Network; and the Moderator of the Bangladesh country working group at the 11th International Dialogue on Youth and Employment in Berlin in 2013. Shaikat was nominated as one of the 100 global young leaders by Women Deliver in 2013 and leading several youth dialogues in Bangladesh and globally. He was also nominated to the International Visitor Leadership Program by the US Department of State in 2013 and to the Asian Young Leader for Democracy program in 2015. He has spoken at several international platforms, including the youth events of the 69th and 70th UN General Assemblies during 2014 and 2015; the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2018; the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable development (youth forum) in 2017 and 2018; the World Urban Assembly 2018; and the Women Deliver Global Conference in 2016 (Denmark), and 2019 (Canada). He received the ‘The Light of Justice’ award in 2014 by Nyar Alo in Bangladesh and he was a part of the 120 Under 40 Global Champion by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute in 2019. He was featured by the UNESCO Blue Dot Magazine as one of the 13 global youth voices in 2015.
Jagan Shah
Jagan Shah is Senior Infrastructure Adviser in the Department for International Development of the UK Government, where he leads a programme to support the PPP Cell of the Indian Ministry of Finance and is devising a new programme for developing inclusive, investible and resilient cities. Prior to joining DFID in 2019, he gathered over two decades of experience in urban development policy and practice, through advisory and leadership roles, most recently as Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs. Shah combines in his work, his understanding of spatial planning, infrastructure design & finance, transportation, heritage revitalisation and livelihoods development. He has authored two books and his writings on architecture and urbanism have been featured by leading publications in India and abroad.
Balla Moussa Diedhiou
Dr. Balla Moussa Diedhiou has more than 15 years experience in public health and expertise in the health systems and health policies of West African Francophone countries. Balla has worked with Nutrition International since January 2015 as the Country Director for Senegal and the Sahel. In this role, he oversees program development, project and activity management and the dissemination and evaluation of micronutrient interventions. He also manages Nutrition International’s collaborations in country and promotes micronutrient programming in support of the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, and their respective strategies to reduce child mortality, promote child development and improve women’s health. He holds a PhD in Public Health and has a Masters degree in International Development, both of which are from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He also has a Doctorate in Medicine from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal. Between 2009 and 2014, Balla was the Executive Director of the Senegalese Association for Family Welfare, which is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the largest national NGO working in the field of reproductive health in Senegal. His role involved programmatic, administrative, financial and human resources management, as well as strategic planning, external relations and advocacy work. From 2008 to 2009, Balla was the Principal National Expert (representing Senegal’s Ministry of Health) at the Basic Health Program SEN/025 in North Senegal. From 1999 to 2008, he was the Chief of Party, Regional and District Health Officer at the Ministry of Health and worked in the health and nutrition sectors.
Ruth McLeod
Ruth McLeod is an urban development specialist with an international background in organizational development; project assessment, design, management, monitoring, and evaluation; human settlement policy and strategy, and innovative financing for housing and settlement upgrading. She was Chief Executive of Homeless International for 19 years and is now a Senior Teaching Fellow at DPU. Ruth also works as an independent consultant and is an independent project assessor for Comic Relief.
Shamoy Hajare
Shamoy Hajare is the founder and CEO of Radicle Global, a business resource and data ecosystem. It supports youth enterprises operating in the blue and green economies by utilising technology, SDGs monitoring tools, local knowledge, and circular economy principles. Shamoy is a Stakeholder Advisor to the Executive Director of UN-Habitat and has supported over 200 young entrepreneurs and 27 youth-led organisations in the Caribbean as founder and CEO of the Jamaica School for Social Entrepreneurship (JSSE). With over eight years experience in youth social enterprise modeling, alternative business financing, project management, corporate sustainability, and strategic planning, she has worked with over 900 social entrepreneurs globally and is a contributor to the “Policy Guide on Youth Entrepreneurship in the Blue and Green Economies” published by the Commonwealth Secretariat. Her experience as a development planner spans from working with multilateral organisations such as Commonwealth Secretariat, UN-Habitat, UNDP, and UNFPA to working with the Government of Jamaica in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information as a Youth Empowerment Officer. She is the 2016 Commonwealth Young Person of the Year for Excellence in Development Work in the Caribbean Region and has completed her studies for an MSc. in Environment and Sustainable Development at University College London (UCL).