With 1.8 billion young people, the 10-24 age group is the largest generation of youth the world has ever known. The global youth unemployment rate is record high, with 73 million estimated to be unemployed globally. While notable progress has been made, many young people, particularly adolescent girls, lack the investments and opportunities that they require to realize their full potential.

The time for investment is now. Against the background of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s priority to be “working with and for young people,” and as part of a three-day open meeting, the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi, and the Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD) are hosting a roundtable dialogue to advocate for partnerships and investments in young people. The roundtable is specifically looking at how joint programmes within the framework of the System-Wide Action Plan on Youth can be supported.

 

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From left to right: Mr. Badshah, H.E. Amb Kohona, H.E. Amb Pedersen, Mr. Alhendawi, USG Wu, Mr. Dictus, and Mr. Pursey.

 

The event was opened by the permanent co-chair of the IANYD, Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary General of DESA. At the event, the Executive Coordinator of UNV, Mr. Richard Dictus, released the new UN Youth Volunteering Strategy. During the interactive part of the roundtable, the Permanent Representative of Norway. H.E Geir O. Pendersen, the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka, H.E. Amb. Palitha Kohona, the ILO Director for Multilateral Cooperation, Mr. Stephen Pursey, Mr. Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Global Community Affairs at Microsoft, and the Executive Coordinator of UNV, Mr. Richard Dictus all   made interventions along with other UN Representatives, private sector leaders, youth-led organizations and scholars.