Each year on the 12th of August, International Youth Day is observed around the world, which was designated by the United Nations in 1999. The incentive is to draw attention to the many issues that today’s youth face, as well as provide opportunities for government, and other sectors and organisations, to raise issues and concerns surrounding youth.
The theme this year was “The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production“, which focused on the leading role of young people in ensuring that basic needs are met without jeopardising the opportunities and needs of future generations.
This year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered a speech at the University of Calgary, Canada, demonstrating the UN’s commitment to work with and for youth all around the world. Mr Ban encouraged his audience to see the world as a community, and called for help to tackle the three global challenges of sustainable development, employment and peace. He stressed that ‘the power of the young’ can ‘change the world’ by using education as something to ‘give back to the world’, and by being the drivers of change.
He emphasised to the students that ‘any path you choose can lead to a more sustainable future’ and that all young people ‘can be sustainable development leaders’. He stressed that ‘young people can be part of the solution’: ‘Just feel the energy in this room’, Mr Ban accentuated, ‘You are full of ideas!’ Create, invent, and keep climbing beyond failures until you ‘get something more valuable than any material reward’, which is ‘resilience, confidence and compassion for others.’
Mr Ban continued that ‘young people can break barriers, reach across divisions and forge understanding’, and that they should be given a chance to make peace rather than be sent to war. ‘Raise you voices! Prove that youth are not a liability’ but rather ‘an opportunity’. Help build trust, he advised.
He ended his speech by encouraging his audience,
‘Let us lift up our eyes with global vision to see the potential for a just, peaceful and prosperous world. Be a global citizen. With this great vision, let us create a better future for all.’
Additionally, Mr Ban also published a message on the UN website in which he urged youth to be a part of global change, and reiterated that young people are the ‘cutting edge’, and that their ‘dynamism, creativity and idealism can combine to shape attitudes toward demand and help create more sustainable industries.’ He also encouraged the investment in youth as they can ‘contribute to new markets, decent jobs, fair trade, sustainable housing, sustainable transport and tourism, and more opportunities that benefit the planet and people.’
Image credited to University of Calgary, retrieved from twitter.