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The motto of International Youth Day 2024, celebrated today, August 12, is “From clicks to progress: digital pathways for youth to achieve sustainable development”: a phrase that underlines the importance of connecting digitalisation with the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights the crucial role of youth as leaders in technological innovation for their fulfilment. Considering that only 17% of the SDGs are on track to be achieved by 2030, ensuring youth participation in public policy-making and decision-making processes cannot wait. This, in addition to accelerating progress towards sustainable development, will contribute to reducing political polarisation and rebuilding trust in democracy in a world heading towards fragmentation.
The recent UNDP Human Development Report 2023/2024 “Breaking the deadlock: reimagining cooperation in a polarized world” highlights that to close development gaps, institutions must become more people-centered, foster a sense of personal agency, and be more future-oriented. In this context, young people are essential agents of change, able to harness the transformative power of technologies to overcome inequalities in our societies. Their energy, commitment, and desire to participate are a source of hope for more just and resilient societies. Connecting their capacity to innovate and interest in participating with formal decision-making processes is key to addressing development challenges and creating new social compacts that revitalize our democracies.
Youth: part of the solutions
Democracy lives a paradox: Nine out of ten people say they support democracy as a form of government. However, half of these people support leaders who could undermine it. This is in addition to the fact that there is also a lack of representation of youth in formal decision-making spaces. Globally, only 2.98% of parliamentarians are under 30 years olddespite the fact that half of the population is 30 years old or younger. In Latin America and the Caribbean, while 25% of the total population of the region is between 15 and 29 years old, Only 4.7% of parliamentarians are under 30 years old. Thus, it is not surprising that 75.7% of young people between 15 and 25 years old think that they are governed by groups that respond to their own benefit, that satisfaction with the performance of democracy is 45% and that distrust in their governments reaches 40% and in the parties reaches 50%, according to calculations by the organization. Latinobarometer.
The above should not be interpreted as a lack of interest and commitment on the part of young people. Youth mobilization for social causes such as climate change or gender inequalities shows transformative potential and is a clear example that political apathy among young people is a myth. What these numbers suggest is a need to transform institutional spaces to guarantee purposeful and meaningful participation, reducing the gap between youth mobilization and formal participation mechanisms, thereby promoting effective governance.
Participate to build trust
In the recent UNDP publication: “Signs of Change 2024: Hope for all generations”, identifies some of the areas where our legacy to future generations is at stake, and considers the significance of this for development, based on the idea that hope for the future does not diminish our determination to face the immediate challenges of the present and to do justice to current generations. The Pact for the Future and the Declaration on Future Generations that the 193 governments that form part of the United Nations will agree on in The Summit of the Futureconvened by the Secretary-General for September of this year, are an opportunity to give a boost to institutional youth participation. They are the chance to regain hope in an equitable future, in responsible technological progress and in resilient communities.
Young people can and must play a leading role in the design and construction of our future. We need to act in coherence, opening spaces and opportunities for their social, labour and political participation, recognising their voices and contributions for what they are: decisive actors in the future of democracy, fair transitions and sustainable development. Let us work together to achieve the changes and policies that make this agenda of participation, dialogue and intergenerational justice possible.
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