Summary of the Youth Consultation on the Establishment of the UN Youth Office

On 8 September, co-facilitated by Egypt and Guyana, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the landmark resolution A/RES/76/306 to establish a UN Youth Office. The new office will integrate the current activities of the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth (OSGEY), and lead engagement and advocacy for the advancement of youth issues across the UN, in the areas of peace and security, sustainable development and human rights and encourage greater United Nations system-wide collaboration, coordination and accountability on the advancement of youth issues, including UN support to the Member States.  

On 6 October 2022, OSGEY held a virtual consultation with young people to provide an opportunity and a global platform for youth to share their views on the operationalization of the resolution to establish the UN Youth Office. Over 500 stakeholders participated, and out of 74 youth networks and organizations representatives who asked to make interventions, 28 were able to do so during the event. Additional written input was collected from stakeholders following the consultation, to ensure that all who wanted to participate were able to contribute. The discussions focused on the (1) operational functions, (2) structure, (3) resources and staffing of the UN Youth Office, as well as (4) cross-cutting inputs. 

A summary of the spoken and written interventions made by young people – that is not intended to be exhaustive or prescriptive – is included below. 

 

  1. Operational functions 
  • Focus on the implementation of the recommendations of SG’s Our Common Agenda and support meaningful youth engagement across the UN;
  • Structure the work of the UN Youth Office on different divisions: Youth Policy and Political Affairs Division to work mainly on the policy-making process for youth at all levels; Financing and Research; Youth Employment; Communications and thematic clusters based on priority areas – Youth Peace and Security, SDGs, Human Rights, Environment;  
  • Prioritize the capacity of the Office to facilitate inter-cultural dialogues, peer-to-peer learning and exchange as well as networking opportunities amongst youth groups. The Office must deliver capacity-building initiatives to strengthen the youth movement globally; 
  • Engage young researchers to uncover new angles of SDGs and Human Rights that may not yet be a priority. This can be done via University Partnerships; 
  • Engage youth beyond the reach of UN networks using both digital and offline, and in a transparent manner that is responsive to the needs of youth;  
  • Working closely with young people throughout the project and policy cycle (design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning); 
  • Expansion of the UN Youth Delegate Programme (YDP), and Youth Advisory Groups (YAG) to UN entities to reach all countries and UN agencies respectively. Additionally, the YDP and YAG must work in close coordination with the UN Youth Office to achieve their common goals; 
  • Ensure adequate finance for youth in low- and middle-income countries, especially those facing conflict, public health crises, etc.; 
  • Ensure protection of youth who engage with the UN, including zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse, violence, and intimidation, as well as in civic space in their countries; 
  • Lead on coordination with youth movements and cross-cutting activities such as compilation of global milestone events and preparing annual publications on those events; 
  • Work closely with existing National Youth Councils to develop an institutional mechanism for youth at the national level and  
  • Develop standards for multi-stakeholder partnerships and engagement of youth inside and outside of the UN, and have a parameter to enforce these standards; 
  • Support efforts to enhance youth representation at the United Nations, including through increasing and improving the conditions of internships and employment opportunities for youth, especially for youth from developing countries and with due regard to gender balance. 
  1. Operational structure  
  • Consider establishing UN Youth Council for which the Youth Office can serve as a Secretariat; to promote intergovernmental accountability, equity and intergenerational leadership; 
  • Establish a team that works specifically on the post-2030 agenda and ensures a concrete youth-led strategy beyond the SDGs; 
  • Set up thematic committees with young experts from existing youth groups to steer the thematic work of the Office; 
  • Decentralization: Strengthen collaboration with national and regional youth representatives; bottom-up approach to reach last mile communities and grassroots youth organizations, and focus on the localization of priorities to national context; 
  • Create innovative mechanisms that break down structural barriers to the participation and effective engagement of youth; 
  • Actively engage with youth focal points in the Member States to support (financially and logistically) youth political participation and involvement in decision-making processes; 
  • Establish a youth Monitoring and Evaluation Team or Board Members to support the work of the Office in ensuring diversity, inclusion and meaningful engagement; 
  • Expand the work in developing a financial strategy to focus on fundraising both for grants and investments into youth-led projects. This may include working with youth-led groups in the grantmaking process; 
  • Engage with the existing Major Group for Children and Youth in the operational structure of the Office; 
  • Continue and strengthen both online and offline work modalities and engagements with youth organizations and networks; and strengthen the implementation of the Online Knowledge Platform mentioned in the UN Youth Strategy, Youth2030;
  • Ensure youth representation in UN leadership positions by strengthening the position of the UN Envoy on Youth and a Special Envoy for Future Generations;
  • Based on current youth priorities, units within the Office may include Youth Employment and Development, Communications and Partnerships, Finance and Research, Thematic Subgroups.
  1. Resources and staffing  
  • Open and transparent process in hiring for the UN Youth Office;
  • Ensuring adequate resources for the establishment of the UN Youth Office;
  • It is a requirement that the Office be led by a young person (below 35);  
  • Strengthen capacity to host professional development opportunities (internships, fellowships, etc.) for youth at the national and regional levels and from diverse backgrounds with careful attention to youth in places of conflict, violence, forced migration and refugees; 
  • Have the capacity to safeguard those who are marginalized during their engagement in operational functions such as eliminating digital barriers, reimbursing youth for costs that inhibit their virtual and in-person participation; and ensuring that sufficient time is allocated for young people’s meaningful participation;
  • Hiring with an inclusive lens to ensure that there is a higher representation of diverse groups of youth and set quota for underrepresented groups in both staffing and resource distribution; 
  • A specific recommendation is to have two youths from each region to intern at the Youth Office each year. This can be done via P1 position which is currently non-existent in many UN Offices and ensures positions are created across different geographies. 
  1. Cross-cutting inputs: 
  • Establish an accountability mechanism that is transparent, simple to collect inputs, track performance and ensure KPIs of the Office are being delivered; 
  • Ensuring accountability with the Member States and having a system that follows up with world leaders on their promises to youth; 
  • Integrate the principles of the Young Feminist Manifesto in the work of the Youth Office; 
  • Act as an independent office rather than under a certain existing department, so it can function in a neutral way and ensure broad engagement of youth across the UN system and all its pillars; 
  • Youth Office to take into account visa restrictions faced by youth, particularly youth from developing countries in attending UN events and meetings in the global North and requests that the UN Youth Office work to overcome those barriers; 
  • Making the UN multilingual and localizing program information to ensure that youth work is reaching the most vulnerable in their local languages and context; 
  • Supporting the participation of youth delegates in UN meetings from countries that do not themselves send young people to meetings; 
  • Increase of representation of young people under 18s to the platforms the office is facilitating, like Young Leaders for SDGs and Youth Advisory group on climate change; 
  • Addressing the challenges of organizing events that are suitable for all time zones, offering multiple translations and digital support for those with limited digital accessibility.