ECOSOC Youth Forum

Monday, 18th April 2022

Youth at the Helm: Adolescent and Young Key Populations’ Leadership in the COVID-19 Recovery [SIDE EVENT]

Adolescent and young key populations (ayKP) continue to be left behind in the HIV response, and face multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination that hinder their ability to access HIV-related services that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this side event is to demonstrate the intersection between SDG17 and SDG3, particularly focusing on the COVID-19 recovery in the context of the ongoing global AIDS epidemic.

A Recovery Barometer to Boost Decent Jobs for Youth [SIDE EVENT]

The UN Secretary General proposed the creation of a youth recovery barometer in the context of the existing Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth2 to track career paths and labour market outcomes of young people through 2025 and beyond as part of the decade of action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. This side event will seek the input of young people on the 2 key components of the youth recovery barometer; a) Career paths of youth and b) Labour market outcomes of youth, as well as steps leading to its launch.

Tuesday, 19th April 2022

ECOSOCYF – Youth Taking Action for a Sustainable Future [OPENING SESSION]

Young people worldwide are uniquely vulnerable to the long-term socio-economic consequences of the pandemic with major disruptions to education, training and employment. Despite these challenges, young people continue to demonstrate resilience and agility through voluntary service and community-based interventions. There is a need to employ more community based, youth-led and intergenerational approaches to the response and recovery interventions to the pandemic.

Young people have the potential to bring innovative solutions and new perspectives to address the world’s most pressing challenges. Building back better should be an intergenerational effort. Young people need to be at the driver’s seat in creating a better, equitable and sustainable future. It is important to recognize, promote and support their positive role as engaged citizens, positive agents of change and bold innovators. In this particular session, speakers will:

• Propose solutions to support youth in surmounting the tremendous challenges they are facing, among them: the impacts of the major conflicts around the world; the devastating repercussions of COVID-19 in economic, social, health and educational terms; and the need to build their resilience to future shocks.
• Engage in a dialogue on the various actions that Member States and other actors could take to rebuild from COVID-19 in a way that advances the Sustainable Development Goals at the grassroots, national, regional and global levels.
• Discuss the role that young people can bring to society for implementing a global youth-led and youth-centered climate policies and action.
• Address the prospects for youth development and participation in key domains (decent work, economic security and social inclusion) given the right enabling environment.

Working With and For Youth in Building Back Better from COVID-19 and Achieving the 2030 Agenda

This Interactive Roundtable Session will discuss the active leadership of youth in building back from COVID-19 towards more inclusive societies where young people have equal access to opportunities and are empowered to contribute as agents of change. The session will provide an opportunity to monitor the implementation and review of the SDGs from a youth perspective, and showcase lessons learnt, exchange on scalability best practices, analyze gaps, offer insights on creating innovative avenues and enhance existing means for youth participation. As the UN Secretary-General highlighted in his recent report, “Our Common Agenda”, it is time to find ways to give more weight to young people’s collective interests and to make our systems work to safeguard their futures”.

Youth Engagement in Transforming Education – SDG 4

Education is key in driving progress across all SDGs and enabling young people to prepare for entry into the workforce and actively engage on critical social and environmental issues that affect them. The prolonged and repeated class and school closures during 2020 and 2021 have resulted in leaving many of the education-related targets of the SDGs well off track. Youth are rights holders and key actors in realizing human rights, achieving sustainable development, securing peace and preventing violence and conflict. The inclusive participation of young people in shaping and implementing educational policies that affect them is essential. This is why, to be effective, human rights and global citizenship education efforts must engage young people as key partners at all stages: planning, design, implementation and follow-up, as well as regular monitoring and evaluation. This session will provide a safe space for young people to share their perspectives on how to transform education amidst the continuing crisis, reiterating the need to support and build upon existing youth-led solutions to improve the accessibility and equity of education.

Generation Equality: Building Back Better with Young Women and Girls at the Centre – SDG 5

The COVID-19 pandemic extends way beyond public health. It is a crisis of discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, and class, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and inequalities. Women and girls’ safety is the gateway to basic health, living standards and empowerment, and a necessary condition to achieve gender equality and build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic. A renewed, strengthened, and coordinated approach is needed amongst agencies, governments, and civil society to fulfil the commitment set out in Our Common Agenda to place women and girls at the centre. To meaningfully combat the exacerbated inequalities that have developed due to COVID-19, policies and programs intended to support youth and adolescents must be co-created with them. This session will use an intersectional lens to highlight youth experiences in all their diversity on interlinkages between COVID-19, discrimination, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and the climate crisis with a particular focus on grassroots and community voices. It will focus on sharing scalable solutions that take an intersectional approach in rebuilding better.

m Angelica Ojinnaka, your representative to take the issues you care most about to domestic and international forums.

Wednesday, 20th April 2022

COVID-19 Recovery: Youth in Asia and the Pacific Taking Action for a Sustainable Future [Parallel Regional Breakout Session]

Asia and the Pacific is home to the majority of the world’s young people, with around 700 million youth aged between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Young people are critical for the region’s current and future economic and social development, yet the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a serious toll on their wellbeing and development. To advance and deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals meaningfully and effectively, it will be crucial to create enabling and supportive ecosystems that provide opportunities for young people to be fully involved in shaping, developing, and implementing policies, strategies and interventions.

The Asia-Pacific Regional Session will explore the significant role that young people in ensuring a meaningful, inclusive and sustainable COVID-19 recovery, highlighting the necessity to treat them as equal partners in development, mobilize their talent and harness their potential and skills in innovation, technology, job creation, to boost the economies and advance social and environmental progress. By presenting key recommendations from young people in all their diversity across the region, best practices and transformative pathways for youth empowerment and participation in governance, it will celebrate young people leaderships and their agency as agents of change.

Financing our Future – SDG 17 [SIDE EVENT]

Description available soon.

Youth2030: Achieving the SDGs With and For Youth (Youth2030 Progress Report Launch)

Youth2030, the first-ever system-wide youth strategy of the UN, was launched in 2018 by the UN Secretary-General with the ambitious aim of scaling up global, regional, and national actions with and for youth. The session aims to feature rich insights on Youth2030 work and spark conversations on the UN system’s commitment to putting young people at the centre of its work, as we accelerate towards the SDGs.

Q&A: Strengthening Solidarity with the World’s Young People

The COVID-19 pandemic extends way beyond public health. It is a crisis of discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, and class, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and inequalities. Women and girls’ safety is the gateway to basic health, living standards and empowerment, and a necessary condition to achieve gender equality and build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic. A renewed, strengthened, and coordinated approach is needed amongst agencies, governments, and civil society to fulfil the commitment set out in Our Common Agenda to place women and girls at the centre. To meaningfully combat the exacerbated inequalities that have developed due to COVID-19, policies and programs intended to support youth and adolescents must be co-created with them. This session will use an intersectional lens to highlight youth experiences in all their diversity on interlinkages between COVID-19, discrimination, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and the climate crisis with a particular focus on grassroots and community voices. It will focus on sharing scalable solutions that take an intersectional approach in rebuilding better.

m Angelica Ojinnaka, your representative to take the issues you care most about to domestic and international forums.

Thursday, 21st April 2022

Reimagining Education and Learning from Youth: “How can education contribute towards just healthy, sustainable and peaceful futures for all?” [SIDE EVENT]

As education systems globally have had to adapt to the pandemic, making full use of digital tools and innovative approaches developed by communities, we now have a unique opportunity to reimagine education, its role, purpose, content and mode of delivery in view of ensuring it supports the advancement of more equitable, inclusive, just, peaceful and sustainable development models, throughout life. This session will consult with young people on the future of education from the perspective of ensuring young people are well prepared to face future shocks and build a more just, sustainable, healthy and peaceful world for all. It aims to encourage youth engagement in human rights education, global citizenship education and peace education and provide relevant guidance.