Youth make up 60 per cent of the 2.4 billion citizens of the Commonwealth. But the potential of young people to drive social and economic progress is undermined by a lack of adequately trained youth workers to meet the growing demands of the youth sector.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland is travelling to Johannesburg, South Africa for a dialogue on youth employment. She will join policy makers from across the globe to explore solutions to worryingly high levels of youth unemployment in the Sub-Saharan region.
130 young people from across the Commonwealth gathered at Marlborough House last week to plant the seeds of a new era. Their challenge: to envisage how the Commonwealth could change for the better by 2040, and what young people from across the Commonwealth could contribute to help it happen.
The garden at Commonwealth headquarters was transformed into an innovation hub on 5 July as youth from across the globe shared their ideas for a better, brighter future with Prince Harry.
A future generation of leaders has been learning how to give more than one billion young people across the Commonwealth a greater say in how their countries are run.
Youth perspectives are key to finding solutions to most of the big challenges facing countries of the Commonwealth – and the Commonwealth collaboration and innovation can accelerate global progress towards a fairer, safer and more inclusive world.
Commonwealth Secretariat’s Head of Social Policy Layne Robinson reiterated the agreements on youth mainstreaming outlined in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Communiqué during the opening of the Youth Mainstreaming Strategy Consultation in Nairobi this June.
Young people must be at the heart of government plans for the future, the Commonwealth Secretariat has said at a UN meeting.
Karuna Rana is from Mauritius, an island state in the Indian Ocean. It is one of the Commonwealth’s small and vulnerable members. Ms Rana and other young people from those countries understand better than anyone else on earth, the threat of global warming.
Prime Minister Allen Chastanet and Secretary-General Patricia Scotland joined forces to inspire and support young people at the Caribbean Youth Conference in Saint Lucia this week.