One of the many things I love about JCI is the esteemed level of exposure and opportunity it provides. As an organisation, we hold General Consultative status with the United Nations (UN), and as a result, we adopt a lot of UN initiatives within our local grassroots organisations. Part of this involves embracing the Global Goals for sustainable impact and also becoming the organisation that unites all sectors of society to create positive impact- (Business, Government, Public and Private sectors.) JCI agreed to become a partner in fulfilling the UN Sustainable Development Goals at a global Conference in Japan, and to find out more about the occasion that marked our commitment, click here for the JCI Kanazawa Declaration Earlier this year, our National Community Director rallied some JCI members to attend a town hall conversation with UN Secretary General - Antonio Guterres. This was hosted by the United Nations Association and held at the prestigious Central Hall in Westminster. With a delegation of 10 members, an overall audience attendance of 1500 people, it was great to register our presence there as young active citizens. This enabled us to network and strengthen relations with government, business and civic society agents giving us an opportunity to tell them about JCI as well as forge a good basis for creating partnerships in the future. In summary and with very little time for the meeting, some hot topics from the UN Secretary General touched on: 1.Humanitarian crisis: UNSG recommended a Strong commitment to multilateralism where coordination with financial institutions & other organizations are synchronised in tackling the humanitarian crisis.

2. Sustainable Development

Supporting member states in implementing SDG's and proposal of including SDG's in National Budgets

3. Youth Unemployment:

Anticipating the impact of post industrial revolution changes leading to lack of opportunities for youth. Proposals to put mechanisms in place between young people & the UN to have a permanent flow of communication so as to help resolve their issues.

4. Violence & War:

Increase investment capacity in conflict resolution. Prevention of war & violence is a complex multi-throng approach, having a lot to do with the social & economic situation of the countries involved. He highlighted that as long as there are stakeholders of war that believe they can win, there will always be war. There is a need to reform the UN and international institutions, with a particular focus on the three pillars of peace and security, human rights and sustainable development At JCI we believe that peace is possible, therefore our presence in such conversations helps us raise our voice as young active citizens dedicated to the promotion of peaceful, just and inclusive societies. Here is a highlights video of the event https://youtu.be/Q-fPLvVpDF8 As is our Jaycees custom, we concluded the day with a good social catch up to crystallise our thoughts and chart a way forward in creating greater impact in light of the event we had just attended. At JCI UK, we are now collecting project information for a National Brochure which will showcase the SDG Linked projects we have conducted so far. Also, it is exciting to note that our theme at this years world congress is centred around the Sustainable Development Goals. To send in your projects to feature in our brochure or get ideas about how to incorporate global goals in your projects, contact our national Community Director Epi Mabika via epi.mabika@jciuk.org.uk