May 29th 2015

General Assembly Hall, United Nations Headquarters, New York

The High-Level Event of the General Assembly marks the 20th Anniversary of the World Programme of Action on Youth (WPAY) and offers an important opportunity for Member States and other relevant stakeholders to take stock of progress made in its implementation, identify the gaps and challenges ahead while discussing the best way forward for the full, effective and accelerated implementation of this ground-breaking agreement

[Read the full Concept Note here].

The High-Level Event is organized by the President of the General Assembly in coordination with the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Background:

The World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) PDF, adopted by the General Assembly in 1995, provides a policy framework and practical guidelines for national action and international support to improve the situation of young people around the world. The Secretary-Generals’ Synthesis Report on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (2014) notes that in order for the sustainable development agenda to be successful it must be ‘streamlined and employ existing mechanisms and processes’. The success of the Sustainable Development Goals is therefore rooted in ensuring the full and effective implementation of mechanisms such as the World Programme of Action for Youth.

The WPAY remains highly relevant and inspirational, but unfortunately implementation lags behind the commitments made. 2015 is a critical year to generate new ideas on how to revitalize the commitments of Governments and all other stakeholders by looking at ways to link inclusive, participatory and gender-responsive implementation of the WPAY to the post-2015 development agenda.

Objective of the High-Level Event of the General Assembly:

The main objective of the High-Level Event of the General Assembly is to mark the 20th Anniversary of the World Programme of Action on Youth (WPAY) and offer an important opportunity for Member States and other relevant stakeholders to take stock of progress made in its implementation, identify the gaps and challenges ahead while discussing the best way forward for the full, effective and accelerated implementation of this ground-breaking agreement.

The High-Level Event will:

1) Seek to encourage Member States and other relevant stakeholders, including youth-led organizations to implement the WPAY by developing forward-looking programmes and policies grounded in its priority areas.

2) Pay special attention to the need to strengthen monitoring of the implementation of WPAY, including through the collection, analysis and dissemination of, reliable, comparable and relevant data on a continuous basis.

3) Contribute to the deliberations on the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda both by examining the potential of youth to contribute to its design, and by focusing on areas relevant to youth development that can be advanced by the post- 2015 development agenda, as underscored in the World Programme of Action for Youth.

4) Inform the discussions of the High-Level Event of the PGA that will focus on the Demographic Dividend and Youth Employment to be held on 1 June 2015. It will build on the momentum created by the previous events organized by UN partners and other relevant stakeholders, including the First Global Forum on Youth Policies, the 2015 ECOSOC Youth Forum as well as national and regional level events.

Participation in High-Level Event of the General Assembly:

All Member States of the United Nations have been invited to participate at the highest possible level, in particular Ministers of Youth, to this High-Level Event. In addition, Member States are encouraged to include youth delegates in their delegations. The event will also include representatives of UN entities, civil society, including youth-led and youth-focused organizations as well as other relevant stakeholders.

Format of the High-Level Event of the General Assembly:

The High-Level Event of the General Assembly will be held on 29th May, 2015 in the General Assembly Hall, at the United Nations Headquarter.

It will be a one-day event consisting of an opening Plenary and open debate where Member States will be given a 2-3 minute intervention to address the General Assembly on implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth and National Youth policies. The morning session will be followed by two interactive panel discussions with the participation of Member States, UN Agencies, youth-led organizations and other stakeholders followed by a closing session.

Panel discussions will cover the following:

  • Panel 1: Focus on stocktaking for the past 20 years since the adoption of WPAY
  • Panel 2: Focus on the Role of WPAY looking ahead in conjunction with the implementation of the SDGs

The outcome of the High-Level Event will be a President’s summary, which will be circulated to all Member States and other relevant stakeholders.

Youth participation in the High-Level Event:

Registration to the High-Level Event is open to all youth and representatives of youth organizations. All youth are encouraged to attend the High-Level Event and may apply online. Applications will be open on this website in April 2015. Kindly check this website for additional information on when the application will be made available.

#YouthNow WPAY+20 Campaign:

Leading up to the High-Level Event, a global digital and social engagement campaign commemorating this landmark agreement was launched by the united nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in February 2015.Weekly, in partnership with UN agencies and global stakeholders, #YouthNow will raise awareness about youth development opportunities and challenges based on the 15 cross-cutting youth priority areas outlined in WPAY, and will culminate with a month of advocacy in May. We invite Member States, youth organizations and networks and institutions to host online and offline commemorative events. [Learn more]

For more information contact barmada@un.org