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Their future, their turn

Youth are shaping our world

August 11^th, 2022

While you read this, 1.8 billion young people, the largest generation of youth in history, are transitioning to adulthood.

How well they navigate this path will determine not only the course of their own lives, but that of the world.

Against all odds

Today’s young generations are carrying a full backpack: they are still bearing the scars of a global financial crisis and enduring the impacts of an entrenched and inherited climate crisis.

They are coming of age during a pandemic on a scale not seen in generations, which has pushed more than 1.5 billion students and youth out of schools and universities due to lockdowns.

Even before COVID-19, one in five young people were neither in education nor employment – three out of four of these were women. The pandemic could deepen these numbers further.

Paradoxically, they are the most prepared and highly entrepreneurial generation.

We are also seeing the most connected cohort ever: 71 percent of the world’s young people use the Internet compared with 57 percent of other age groups. Especially on social media platforms, they have carved out a space for themselves to freely raise their voices to fight injustice and inequality.

“Give us a seat at the table”

In 2019, India became one of the youngest countries in the world, with an average age of 27 years. However, the median age of political leaders is 64 years.

The youth of today find themselves excluded from decision-making. Giving them a voice in places where rules are made is not only fair, but smart: young people can bring new, creative and innovative ideas and perspectives.

“We can’t keep doing this again and again and not getting results. Give us a seat at the table so we can secure our future,” said Dorothy Kazombo Mwale, a youth climate activist from Malawi, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26).

Despite all, they have become the standard bearer for activism on a range of issues. Compared to other generations, young people are more likely to identify, support and engage with climate causes.

Since they have the most to lose, their participation and inclusion is critical.

The bloom of youth

Here are five examples that prove how young people are active architects of our daily reality… and of the near future.

“Every time we roll out a prosthetic foot from our factory, we know it will change people's lives,” says Abrahim.

Seyyam, a young man from Pakistan who was studying engineering, never thought he would end up developing his own cure after having a serious accident in which he lost his left leg. With his friend and classmate, Abrahim, they set out on a mission: they would make the best prosthesis for Seyyam.

The two friends started working on designing and building it, but at the same time they also began to realize the challenges faced by people with disabilities in the country. So what started as a personal challenge turned out to be a business idea: Mobiliti.

Today, the company is the first and only indigenous prosthetics manufacturer in Pakistan that meets international standards and that is “affordable, efficient, and enables people to achieve their full physical potential,” as Abrahim describes.

The business success resulted in Abrahim receiving the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia award in Healthcare and Science.

On 25 February, after several explosions erupted in Odessa, Ukraine, Irina, newly graduated with a master’s in psychology, packed up the basics and fled to Chisinau in neighbouring Moldova.

She believed, knowingly, that in times of crisis it is best to keep your mind occupied. She decided to volunteer to counsel other refugees.

“I’m able to help them adapt to the new reality, to the temporary place to live, to establish a trusting relationship with them. Step by step, people come to talk more openly about their needs and come to individual sessions. This is a great achievement," says Irina.

Irina is professionally fulfilled and feels that due to her work, there is less uncertainty and despair.

"I try to distract children from thoughts about the war,” she says.

Khowla was born in Baidoa, Somalia but escaped civil war with her family, moving to Kenya, where she studied public administration.

“Rape happens a lot in our community,” Khowla says. “It makes me quite depressed sometimes. Why are women being treated this way?”

“I used to hear from my mum and dad, and also from the radio, about how women were mistreated and how they were forced to get married,” she says. When she could, Khowla returned to Somalia and started visiting internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and helping abused women get medical care and fill out refugee applications.

Now, she has became the coordinator of Baidoa’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre in South West Somalia, a centre that offers a safe place where opposing parties can either talk things through — sometimes de-escalating situations that could turn violent — or put their disputes before a panel of elders for an independent decision.

Martin grew up in Hoima, Uganda, where he witnessed urban households and businesses mismanage their waste. And what was a daily problem, became an inspiration for this young student of computing and information sciences.

After securing a climate action grant from UNDP Uganda, he teamed up with four other university colleagues and developed “Yo-Waste”, a start-up that is targeting waste management in urban communities.

The “Yo-Waste” app allows waste pickers who own a truck to sign up as partner garbage collectors and get access to customers that need their services.

To date, the start-up has impacted over 10,000 households in Kampala and Entebbe, leading to the collection of over 1,200 tons of solid waste in 2021 which would otherwise have been burnt in the open or disposed of in water channels.

Near the Colombian Amazon is Vistahermosa, a small village where 300 ex-combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) decided to carry out their process of social reintegration. Natalia is one of them.

She was one of six siblings from a humble family. She couldn't go to school because she had to fight in the guerrilla war.

Currently, as part of her reintegration process, Natalia is studying in the university, while she leads one of the most important initiatives in the territory: together with other women from the village, she has created a childcare centre, which in turn helps reduce the burden of this type of work on women.

Right now, the centre cares for half of the children in the village and empowers women by giving them decent employment opportunities.

Natalia still does not want to have children because she wants to focus on her professional career, but she recognizes that projects like this are necessary to close the structural gender gaps in the country.

Their journey, our responsibility

We must take youth seriously – they are shaking up the present to build a better future for all.

It’s our duty to ensure that they are meaningfully included at the table where important decisions are taken, strengthening their ability to advance human rights, peace and security and development issues in all contexts.

Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, once said: “What history books will write about you, what your children and grandchildren will read about you, will depend on what decisions you make today.”

And she is right. Youth are entrusted with fulfilling their own potential, but those currently holding power must guarantee that they have the tools and the space to do so.