- 8 months ago
The Malaysian-ASEAN Youth SDG Summit 2025 brings together young leaders, public and private sectors, and NGOs to drive progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Summit Advisor, Zoel Ng, and Director Philus George discuss the future of youth leadership in sustainable development.
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00:00Hello and welcome to It's About Youth. I'm your host, Farina Sheh, and today we are at a very
00:13beautiful venue, One Utama Secret Garden, for the Malaysian ASEAN Youth SDG Summit 2025. Now,
00:19this summit brings together youth leaders, public sector and private sector, NGOs, to
00:25collaborate on advancing Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. We are joined by two remarkable
00:31representatives, Zawel Ng, advisor of Malaysian ASEAN Youth SDG Summit, as well as Phyllis George,
00:36director of the summit. Thank you so much for joining me, you guys. And it's such a beautiful
00:41day as well to be outside, right? Okay, let's start with what this summit is all about. Phyllis,
00:47if you can give us an introduction. Actually, the summit was a starting point for the all-party
00:53parliamentary group Malaysia and MySDG Academy in 2021, as a Malaysian youth SDG Summit, which
01:00became a platform to mobilise and empower youths on Sustainable Development. A little bit of context
01:06on the APPGM SDG, or All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia, on Sustainable Development Goals. We are a
01:14bipartisan initiative, endorsed by the parliament to localise the UN SDGs in the parliament constituencies.
01:20In the youth wing, we mobilise the youths to take little, little projects or little, little solutions
01:26with the power that we have to call for a sustainable action and future. And now, what is the summit about?
01:33The summit is actually about the theme of the summit this year is Enhancing Inclusivity and Sustainability,
01:38in line with Malaysia's ASEAN theme itself, Inclusivity and Sustainability. So, the enhancing part of it,
01:46how is the enhancement happening? Well, it is in terms of the engagement of youths. And if you look at it,
01:54when we hear about a summit, we hear a conference setting. But we have tried to nudge it up a bit or hype it up a bit
02:02and make this, in a garden setting, vibes like our Gen Z looks forward to it.
02:09Right. I mean, it's such a beautiful venue, like I said just now, and it's such a unique place to be,
02:14to actually be immersed with nature and talking about SDGs, right? Now, I understand from your shirt itself,
02:19it says Way Forward, right? Yes! So, a key highlight, I guess, in this year's summit is the launch of the Way Forward model.
02:26Can you explain, Zoelle, what is this model and how is it, how does it foster collaborations between youth,
02:32public, private, and grassroots sectors? Yes, sure. Thank you very much. So, I'm Zoelle.
02:37The Way Forward is a partnership model. And we believe that when the private sector, government,
02:44the youth, the CSO, and the media are coming together, we have a huge power. So, we work out this Way Forward.
02:50You see that young people actually leaping, jumping, and we are ahead to the Agenda 2030.
02:59Right. And one of the emphasis is, we are looking into this, like research, right?
03:05We are not just looking for something just out of passion, but whether out of passion,
03:12we can develop a best practices, good model to effectively get people together.
03:17So, along the journey, we are looking into the impact evaluations, we are looking into the research and journal documentation,
03:23and also brings the theories to practical. And therefore, this Way Forward is what we actually visualise about,
03:31and we are hoping for to gather those who care about Malaysian youth come together and bring the youth.
03:39Why is it Way Forward, Felix?
03:41If you look at the way, you might be understanding what is Way Forward.
03:46Yes, it is a Way Forward, but what does W, A, Y stand for?
03:49What is the W?
03:50W stands for Weaving Partnerships.
03:52Weaving Partnerships.
03:53Oh, it's an acronym.
03:54A stands for Accelerating SDGs, and Y stands for You and Youth.
04:01Ah, clever.
04:02Right, okay.
04:03I mean, we didn't get that if we were just seeing it like this.
04:08Right, I mean, it definitely sounds like a very comprehensive and cohesive way of looking at SDGs in a multifaceted way, right?
04:18Yeah, okay, way forward.
04:20Right, okay, so diving into youth a little bit, because we are at a conference called Youth SDG Summit.
04:26Phyllis, maybe you can share with us, what is the importance of youth involvement when it comes to being at the forefront of SDGs initiatives in Malaysia?
04:36I believe the most important value that youths bring to the table is their grit and passion.
04:42And two emphasis that we've been talking about these few days is the trust and space that youths have,
04:48and how youths bring to that complementing factor with intergenerational collaboration, conversations.
04:56It starts with conversations.
04:57Then number two is how they involve themselves in the process.
05:01I think in our department, we look into that model from a bottom-up approach, starting with networking.
05:08This summit itself is a networking space.
05:10Right.
05:11We have about 43 partners that are working with us, including Wan Uthama, MBM, Ministry of Youth and Sports,
05:18UN Office of Malaysia, Bruna and Singapore.
05:21And we have our partners that are supporting so strongly.
05:25So building from that, then the conversation starts.
05:30Then level two comes in, skills building, skills and knowledge building.
05:34Then finally, number three in the pyramid is identity or the systems that they involve in.
05:41Because then we have a holistic development.
05:44Right.
05:45I mean, it's also, I feel like, important to give youth the voice.
05:48You know, when you talk about bottom-up approach, it's about giving youth the voice to actually,
05:53you know, give an impact and create action, right?
05:57I mean, Zo, do you have anything to add on?
05:59Yeah, I think voice and space.
06:01Youths are very, very creative.
06:03Of course, I'm still quite youth.
06:05Okay.
06:06Okay.
06:07All youths here.
06:08But one thing I observe in my youth development, I'm already in this journey for 19 years,
06:14is that as long as you trust the youth, they can give you wonders.
06:18Frana, let me share with you.
06:20Last year, I gave three teams of youth only RM9,000.
06:24RM9,000, one team from Sabah, one team from Sarawak, one team from Peninsular, Penang.
06:30They can utilize, each team of them, they can utilize this small amount of funds to really make an impact.
06:37Say, for example, the Sabah team.
06:39They can do the social entrepreneurship.
06:41They can even fund the social entrepreneurs to go and join the competition, won the third places and came back.
06:47Now, the beneficiaries are already our committee in the SDG agents.
06:52And maybe, Phyllis, you can share about Pentara and then I'll share about Penang One.
06:56Pentara Group is another interesting group that, with the small grant funds that was given to them, they advocated on cultural advocacy.
07:04Malaysia is diverse in our culture and unique, that's part of our Malaysian culture.
07:09And the diversity called calling to action on how we can...
07:14Flourish.
07:17Flourish the culture of Malaysia.
07:19Right.
07:20So, what they did, when we talk about sustainability, it's not just about the awareness and advocacy.
07:27There's so much to it, and even culture is part of it.
07:30So, they started advocating for cultural development.
07:34Then, finally...
07:35If it's RM9,000, the Sarawak team, they can bring, they can fly over a few representatives to KL.
07:43They put up a carnival, and then with fashion shows, and then work together with the council.
07:49Especially this one.
07:50When the youth come out, I feel that the government agency is more willing to support.
07:54Right, right, right.
07:55And then they can leverage a lot of resources.
07:58And while the other team is doing food security, they work together with Baba.
08:03When they want to do some projects, they go to those core private sectors to care about the youth development.
08:09They partner.
08:10They partner.
08:11They have a capacity building, and then they do the training about food security in the school.
08:16And the ripple effect is now this international school have already the green garden doing the waste circulation, etc.
08:22Friendly speaking, if RM9,000 give to an adult group easily, it's just go to a catering and makan.
08:28Right.
08:29Okay.
08:30I mean, it's about giving them the tools and the opportunities, right?
08:34And they can get creative with it.
08:36And I think we see from your examples just now that youth do get creative with the tools and opportunities given.
08:42Now, we talked about some of the ways they are advancing SDGs, but I want to also touch on some of the challenges that they face.
08:51If any of you can sort of elaborate based on your, you know, underground experience, what are some of the challenges that, you know, this youth advocates face when it comes to promoting SDGs?
09:01I think I would like to touch a bit on two things.
09:05Number one is, one of the challenges I noticed that we could potentially face is, we are visionaries.
09:14Hmm.
09:15I think it goes across generations.
09:16All of us are visionaries.
09:18Then when we start to, it was a recent reflection that purpose is gradually realized.
09:26Right.
09:27So, along the way, the more realistic approach of it will come nearing to the end of the implementation.
09:34Right.
09:35This big idea and sort of win it down a little bit.
09:37Yeah, yeah.
09:38The funnel system that happens to it.
09:40So, the challenging part is not even a challenge.
09:43It's actually an opportunity of growth.
09:45That's number one.
09:46Number two is a mapping process.
09:48Because when we talk about youth development, we also need to talk about what national agendas we are mapping to.
09:54The global agendas we are mapping to.
09:56The summit of the future, the back to the future document was recently adopted.
10:01Then we have the SDGs, then our national youth policy, the Raka Muda.
10:06So, these are areas we need to map and the knowledge needs to be there.
10:10Right.
10:11So, well, working with youth for 19 years, what's your thought?
10:15Yes.
10:16First is whether we are supporting the national agenda.
10:19This year, I've been telling the team, okay, we have to say that we have the influence power to mobilize so many youth in Malaysia.
10:26But any of our agenda is actually supporting our country agenda.
10:31See, for example, next year's 2026 is Visit Malaysia Year.
10:35Do any of our efforts that are helping to promote sustainable tourism in Malaysia.
10:41So, mapping our agenda, the national agenda, so that we are not sure sendiri.
10:46Right, okay, okay.
10:47That's important.
10:48So, making sure that we are able to sort of fill in the gaps where it needs to.
10:54So, and to not sort of create overlap or a messy way of approaching things, right?
11:00I always tell the team this thing.
11:02We want solutions, we don't want projects.
11:05The difference of solution and projects is one with the need.
11:08One with that, we thought this is what others need.
11:12Right.
11:13Then, of course, then also another challenge Prana allowed me to share is about the youth themselves.
11:18Oh, okay.
11:19All right.
11:20There are various types of youth, but there are also passionate youth who want to join the team.
11:26But, sometimes they are too busy.
11:28Right, okay.
11:29Because they are too talented, they are too wanted.
11:32So, if you are the youth in this category, watching at this show, my encouragement to you is really you need to focus.
11:41Find one soil, find one platform to grow because human attention is like a soil.
11:47Right.
11:48If you're planting too many seeds on it, it won't forage like this.
11:52Focus is quite important.
11:54Right, okay.
11:55I mean, we're going to go to advice to young youths after this.
11:59And we're going to talk more about the importance of collaboration between different sectors.
12:03But, right after this break.
12:22Hello and welcome back to It's About Youth.
12:24Today, we are joined by Zoelle and Phyllis at the Malaysian Youth SDG Summit 2025 at this very beautiful venue, Wanatama Secret Garden.
12:32Right, we talked just now about youths' role in advancing SDGs.
12:37But, now I want to talk a little bit about the collaboration part, right?
12:41Because, obviously, youths cannot do it alone.
12:43So, how important is the collaboration of, you know, private sector, public sector and even NGOs in promoting SDGs?
12:51I think every sector has their strengths.
12:54So, people like us, I'm in my mid of 30.
12:57I might have a little bit of experience, a little bit of network, a little bit of idea and also a vision to work.
13:04But, I lack of time.
13:06I lack of creativity.
13:08I lack of energy like them.
13:10They can work like 6am to 12pm as long as they are on fire.
13:14Right.
13:15They enjoy it.
13:16So, that is something they have, we don't have.
13:19But, while two generations working together, we can really leverage on one another's strengths and you see the fulfilment on that.
13:28Besides that, it's like government has a role in doing policy.
13:32They are serving the public, make sure that the public voice is heard and also they have been taken care of.
13:38Right.
13:39But, sometimes they have the difficulty to really go on the ground, to listen to the grassroots sound.
13:44And, this is where APPGM SDG can play a unique role.
13:47The PPP model, I feel that the public-private partnership model especially is unique in APPGM SDG where currently we are working with 143 member of parliaments, 947 of CSO think tank university in localizing of SDG.
14:08We have a lot to leverage because we can bring the grassroots voices to the policy table.
14:14Right.
14:15And, while private sectors, especially the private sectors, they seem that have difficulty to work together with government.
14:21Right.
14:22I found that many of them, they have hard to help the community but at the same time, they have to take care of their dollar and cents.
14:31Right.
14:32And, when there is someone, if there is someone, an agent, a mechanism can effectively blend the three parties together, then I say that it will become a good vehicle.
14:43A good vehicle and model for the country.
14:45And, what we are aiming for is also experiment, see whether the way forwards can become a best practices in the regional setting.
14:53Right.
14:54I mean, it's all about, I think you guys are in the perfect place to sort of bridge the gap between this sort of three main drivers when it comes to SDGs, right?
15:05Yeah.
15:06Right.
15:07Okay.
15:08So, looking at SDG efforts in Malaysia right now, what do you think are some of the areas, promising areas where youth can actually drive meaningful change?
15:17Phyllis?
15:18Positive areas where youths can drive meaningful change.
15:21Wow.
15:22I think this is very psychological in that question, but I believe it's all about, I think initially when I started also in this beautiful journey was interest mapping.
15:34Okay.
15:35Interest mapping and also the strength mapping.
15:38Okay.
15:39Initially, I think you also mentioned on the tools and the opportunities given to youth.
15:43So, sometimes some of us might not have the right tools that we are most competent in playing with.
15:49For example, a youth might be good at playing the guitar, but if you give him a flute, he might not be able to know what to play with.
15:59Same context in the tools that is given in their career advancement or the areas that they are collaboratively working for driving the sustainable agenda.
16:09Because the niche areas of the youths definitely look into their interest, their passion drive, the community needs, mapping the two together.
16:19And number two is the tools that they readily have when they are mapping and pushing forward the sustainability agenda.
16:29Right.
16:30I think in youths as well, I mean, I guess I'm almost at the...
16:35Yeah, in the same...
16:36Yeah, about that.
16:37I think a lot of youths are also driving change on social media, right?
16:41Yeah.
16:42When it comes to all this, a lot of youths are very tech savvy.
16:45So, I think this is some of the way when it comes to promoting SDGs, they are out there voicing their opinions.
16:52You know, doing TikTok videos, doing all sorts of creative content on social media about this and simplifying it for youths to understand.
17:03I think that's a very positive area for them to work on.
17:07That's true.
17:08Yeah.
17:09I think that gives a unique blend to linking the different partners and stakeholders.
17:14Yeah.
17:15Actually, last year, we did do one youths ambassador.
17:18It's using media to advocate about SDGs.
17:20And last year, June, with the advice by Tato Sri Mustafa Toppa.
17:26So, we do this with 22 Klang Valley private and also public universities.
17:32One day, we teach them what is SDGs and in the afternoon, they use social media to talk about SDGs.
17:38And it goes viral.
17:40It's like amazing.
17:41It's within 45 minutes, they have to shoot the videos and then they have to post into social media.
17:45Right.
17:46And you attract hundreds of views.
17:48It's like how difficult for us to get hungry people to talk.
17:51But one thing, one thing I also want to remind the youths.
17:54When using social media, short clip is good as an advocacy tool, but we also have another observation.
18:00Some of them are good in talking only for one minute.
18:03But if you want to talk for 30 minutes, one hour, they do not have the contact.
18:07Right.
18:08So, whether they have the in-depth knowledge or they are just enough for the one minute looks good show,
18:14I think they have to dive into which approach they want to use.
18:18Right.
18:19Okay, okay.
18:20That's a good tip.
18:21Right.
18:22So, talking about ensuring that these youths are creating meaningful change and creating long-lasting impact.
18:29How can we ensure that these initiatives that they are taking, be it within the summit or even beyond outside,
18:36throughout the advocacy, how can they ensure that they are creating long-lasting impact,
18:42and they are not just megaphones or token participants when it comes to promoting SDGs?
18:50What are your thoughts?
18:51Oh, the idea of tokenism was something that was brought quite a bit in youth conversations,
19:00even at the summit of the future.
19:03And are youth representation just at the surface level of, hey, I need to hear your voice.
19:10Yeah.
19:11Okay, once you are done with that, okay, bye, thank you for your inputs.
19:14Okay, yeah.
19:15Or is it that meaningful participation till the end to see and follow up?
19:19I think that's what creates the partnership is important, but also the partners are accountable partners.
19:25Accountability value is important to it.
19:27So just as the partners might be needing to be accountable to the youths, youths need to be accountable to the partners as well.
19:34When I talk about partners, I mean the intergenerational collaboration, stakeholder partnership,
19:39so going across different sectors when we talk about partnership.
19:43So I think that is one mitigation way of moving forward from youth participation just being tokenism.
19:52Because we need to follow up.
19:53We have the drive.
19:54So we also need to follow up in terms of, is my voice really implemented and on the ground?
19:59Right.
20:00Yeah, it's about the accountability that you mentioned.
20:02And I guess two-way communication with a lot of the stakeholders to ensure, you know, check if there's tangible result
20:09and check if, you know, the initiative that you put out are actually, you know, impacting change and are serving this community.
20:17So, yeah, that's a good point.
20:19Okay.
20:20Let's talk about, you mentioned just now, you've given a few advice as well.
20:24But do you have any more advice on youth who wants to start, you know, advocating for SDGs?
20:31Who would like to start but don't know where, don't know how, how do we go about this?
20:38All right.
20:39Opportunities is everywhere.
20:41In fact that the opportunities is overflowed now.
20:44Everywhere.
20:45Okay.
20:46So my advice to group A, I have two groups.
20:49Group A, those who are very talented, you are very active in the organisations, you are very wanted, stay humble and also be grounded.
20:59When you, sometimes when we are young and then we are so wanted, we show the talents and we forgotten where we started our work.
21:07All right.
21:08And for a lot of groups of youth who are just want to walk out, believe me, there's many, many, many platforms.
21:15As long as you're willing to walk out.
21:17And also, don't see things as too generous.
21:21There is also some personality involvement.
21:23It means that if you walk out, you knock the door, you feel that you are not so welcome.
21:28Don't feel that the world is not welcoming you.
21:30Right.
21:31It's just that you maybe meet some personality not that friendly.
21:34Give yourself the second try.
21:36Give yourself the third try.
21:37Right.
21:38This is my suggestion.
21:39We'll keep trying harder.
21:40Sure.
21:41As a youth representative yourself?
21:44I think I totally agree with what Zohol said in terms of that groundedness.
21:51I think that groundedness is a key factor of building up.
21:55And that is a bottom-up approach.
21:57Because when you start, spread your wings, but at the same time keep your feet on the ground.
22:03Right.
22:04That's a nice way of putting it.
22:06So, for APPGM SDG, beyond this summit, right, how do you plan to maintain the momentum and
22:16encourage long-term SDG collaboration among youth and other stakeholders?
22:21We have a platform, it's called Youth SDG Summit with SDG agents.
22:26So, this agent will follow us about one year training and also mentorships.
22:31We have a good partnership with government and also civil society organisations, but we
22:36really need the private sectors to be partnered with us to build the country together.
22:40Right.
22:41So, more and more private sector involvement.
22:44I believe it comes down to engaging all the stakeholders and where each of the youths
22:55are more interested in mapping and how they can collaboratively work towards the future.
23:02Right.
23:03So, complementing exactly what Zohol said.
23:05That partnership.
23:06It builds on partnership.
23:07It's a way forward.
23:08It's a way forward.
23:09Yeah, it's the way forward.
23:10As you have explained just now.
23:12Good publicity.
23:13Right, okay.
23:14So, I guess we are coming to the end of our segment.
23:21Lastly, one sentence.
23:23What is your hope for Malaysia's youth in shaping a more sustainable and inclusive future for
23:29Malaysia?
23:30Wow.
23:31One statement.
23:32One sentence is hard.
23:33Okay, you can.
23:34Two sentences.
23:35One sentence.
23:36You're messed up.
23:37Okay, go ahead.
23:38Go ahead.
23:39Find something that resonates to your heart and go for it.
23:45Find something that resonates to your heart and go for it.
23:48I would say, stay humble, be grounded, and everything that needs to be in its right place
23:55will fall in its right place at the right time.
23:58Right.
23:59I mean, these are two passionate people who are advocating for SDGs and who are advocating for
24:04youth to be more involved in SDGs.
24:06So, I thank you, both of you, for your commendable effort in this front.
24:12That's all the time we have, unfortunately.
24:15Thank you again for inviting Estrawani at this beautiful venue, landscape.
24:21We're going to have to walk around after this a little bit.
24:24So, yeah.
24:25That was Zoelle and Phyllis from the Malaysian ASEAN Youth SDG Summit 2025.
24:31Be sure to get a look out on this event after this.
24:34It is power.
24:35Right.
24:36Okay.
24:37Thank you so much, everyone.
24:39Bye.
24:40Bye.
24:41Bye.
24:42Bye.
24:43Bye.
24:44Bye.
24:45Bye.
24:46Bye.
24:47Bye.
24:48Bye.
24:49Bye.
24:50Bye.
24:51Bye.
24:52Bye.
24:54Bye.
24:55Bye.
24:56Bye.
24:57Bye.
24:58Bye.
24:59Bye.
25:00Bye.
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