Unpacking International Youth Day

The United Nation’s (UN) annual International Youth Day on August 12 serves as a reminder that young people around the world are often relegated to the sidelines and excluded from having a say in decisions that will affect them. Ultimately, the lack of youth participation in important decisions is detrimental to all – regardless of age. In recent years, the importance of youth participation in civic society has been increasingly recognized. Today, 122 governments around the world have adopted national youth policies that focus on empowering young people. In 2012, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, made working with and for young people a priority of his five-year agenda. He requested the Interagency Network on Youth Development, a group of some 40 UN entities working together to advance youth issues, to develop an action plan. During the 2014 World Conference on Youth in Sri Lanka, world leaders supported an inclusive approach to youth participation in the post-2015 discussion. Within the context of the future of the UN’s development agenda, the open working group on sustainable development goals includes specific targets for developing the skills young people need to thrive and find employment in the 21st century. Despite this emphasis on youth, tapping into the energy and resources young people bring to the table often translates into providing “youth forums” on the margins of larger international meetings and conferences. Similarly, many organizations select “youth representatives” through an open, competitive process to attend and participate in these forums. But more often than not, the voices of these overwhelmingly urban, educated and often privileged young people are not truly representative of the broader youth community. Many today even call such events an instance of “youth-washing”. So how can young people be better included in decision-making processes around the world? First, governments and international organizations need to reach out to young people on the margins of society, who do not necessarily enjoy the privileges of high-quality education and access to networks. International conferences need to welcome true diversity among youth participants – whether socio-economic, cultural or geographic. It is the introverts and skeptics we need to bring to these meetings and involve in a constructive dialogue. Second, we should recognize that young people are not a homogenous constituency. They are different across cultures, religions and countries. Yet they are connected by their age and the degree to which they rely on the present for their future. Young people in North America and the Middle East are connected in that the actions of current decision-makers will have an impact on their generation as they come of age and become decision-makers themselves. We should pay attention to and harness one of the largest global phenomena among young people – a growing demand for dialogue. The extraordinary success of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram illustrate a need to communicate. We must use this need to mobilize young people to change the world for the better and shape the future they want for themselves. One way to support young people is to give them a platform to voice their opinions and create a community of individuals invested in peace and sustainable development. To this end, UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, one of Unesco’s first institutes in the Asia-Pacific region, launched its YESPeace Network in 2014. YESPeace – Youth for Education, Sustainability and Peace – aims to create a dialogue and activity platform for all existing youth networks to come together to work on building peaceful and sustainable societies. Networks and platforms that make use of communication technologies to reach out to young people across the world are a step in the right direction. However, we need to raise more awareness about the potential young people have to make a difference, and ensure that their views are included in national and international policy discussions. One solution might be to increase the global impact of International Youth Day by establishing a week-long youth twenty-four-seven celebration to bring together the voices of young people across five continents. These opinions, collected through participatory and inclusive consultations and forums, should then inform policy decisions and civic action at national and international levels. Only through large-scale inclusive participation, followed by concrete proposals for decision-makers, can the voices of young people become truly representative of their generation. If young people do not participate in civic society and public policy debates from the beginning, this will affect their ability to become responsible leaders in the years to come. As former UN secretary general Kofi Annan said: “A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.”   About the Author: Akshan de Alwis is Diplomatic Courier’s UN Correspondent. Photo Caption: UN Photo by Loey Felipe. A view of participants at launch of the latest World Youth Report, entitled "Youth Civic Engagement", organized by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). United Nations, New York.