“Nothing about us without us”: hundreds of youth voices heard at the UN

 

Over 800 young leaders from around the world gathered at the UN Headquarters last week to demand stronger efforts from the global community on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 8th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum provided a platform for youth to hold UN Member States accountable for progress on the SDGs, and also engage in dialogue among themselves and with UN organizations.

The Forum
The ECOSOC Youth Forum, co-hosted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, is the largest annual gathering of young people at the United Nations. This year’s session was guided by the overarching theme “Youth: Empowered, Included and Equal.” Although much in line with the recently endorsed UN Youth Strategy which puts youth and the front and center of the sustainable development agenda, the theme is still but a hopeful future scenario.

There is a long way to go before reaching meaningful empowerment, real inclusion and equality for all young people. However, through two days of plenary sessions and thematic breakout groups, it became clear that concerted efforts by UN agencies – IFAD included – and Member States are already offering valuable solutions to reaching these goals. From National Youth Policies to National Youth Councils, from quotas for youth membership in government advisory institutions to municipal youth coordinators. Best practices abound.

But where does significant progress still needs to be made? Young advocates urged for more inclusive dialogue between governments and young people from all walks of life, including those living with disabilities and in rural communities, as well as indigenous youth.

From participation to empowerment: youth and SDG8
“The ones that need us the most include the over 260 million young people who are not in school today, the 64 million young people who are unemployed, along with the 145 million young people who live in working poverty,” said the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake. It was against this stark reality that IFAD, together with ILO, UNDESA, UNV, UNCTAD, UNIDO and MGCY approached the much needed debate around one of the most burning challenges faced by young people today: access to decent employment.

In line with IFAD’s Rural Youth Action Plan (RYAP) 2019-2021 and ILO’s Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, IFAD co-organized a Thematic Session on Youth and SDG8. The session featured a series of parallel conversations on the challenges and opportunities faced by young people in accelerating progress towards decent work for all. The following three themes framed the participatory dialogue for those 90+ present, including representatives of youth organizations and networks, UN entities and Member States:

• Beyond GDP: youth perspectives on well-being, the environment, and inclusive economic growth.
• Youth transitions to decent work: education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in urban and rural areas.
• Rebuilding trust: increasing investment in the institutions of work.

The lively discussions allowed for Member States, young leaders and youth organizations to discuss innovative measures that enhance youth access to decent work, and accelerate progress towards the achievement of the SDGs. One of the take-away messages from the debates was the need to understand rural youth’s local challenges and solutions and to engage rural young people throughout project cycles as a whole – from design to implementation – and the need to integrate climate resilience in the future of work.

#Youth2030 and the next steps forward
Overall, the Forum served as a fertile space for young people to share their vision on sustainable development and elaborate their contributions to United Nations upcoming meetings, including the 2019 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), when progress on the SDGs will be discussed.