Today is the culmination of the International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding, which began on 12 August 2010. There are 1.8 billion young people in the world today, who make up 1/3rd of the world’s population. We hope that although the International Year of Youth has come to a close, momentum and progress for youth involvement and focus in development will not be lost.
Young people can drive change. Their perspective, their experiences, and their willingness to ask tough questions offer the greatest hope for challenging the social norms and decades-old policies that harm girls and women. When young people are engaged, informed, and empowered, they can advocate for themselves and express their concerns about the need to invest in solutions that save the lives of girls and women. Young people also have diverse needs in regards to their sexual and reproductive health and rights, which must be met through policies, legislation and programs to fully enable them to realize their rights.
On the 12th of August, we will celebrate International Youth Day 2011 with the theme Change Our World. It's a day to celebrate the power of young people to make positive change for their communities, countries, and the world. This theme is meant to express the level of impact young people can achieve. Change Our World is a call for continual, long lasting progress in areas of societal development that concern youth.
Women Deliver, and our group of 100 Young Leaders who advocate for maternal health, hope for continued action from delegates to:
• Enable and empower young people locally, nationally, and internationally to lead as agents of change in policies and programs that affect their lives.
• Implement and continuously develop comprehensive sexuality education programs and information that are accessible both in and out of school.
• Ensure that young people, especially girls, have autonomy over their lives and can freely decide if and when to marry and have children.
• Provide safe, accessible, affordable, and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services that are confidential, non-judgmental, and rights-based with an emphasis on especially reaching those who are most marginalized.
• Support and develop meaningful youth participation at all levels of decision making and create dialogue between decision makers and young people to ensure better understanding and intergenerational partnerships.
• Invest in young people’s health, education, and rights to improve their capacity and opportunity to contribute to development – a critical contribution to sustainable and effective progress towards achieving internationally agreed upon development priorities including the Millennium Development Goals, the Programme of Action, and Key Actions for Implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Beijing Platform for Action.
CHECK out news from the International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding here.
READ our thoughts on the UN High Level Meeting on Youth here.
READ a joint statement on the HLM from a number of organisations and young people here.
As International Year of Youth Ends, More Work on Youth is Needed
August 11th, 2011
Entry Comments
There was not enough publicity of the “International Year of the Youth”, Most governments only signed agreements but there is no visible ratification nor implemeantation. The situation of young people is almost the same.