International Youth Day statement by Commonwealth Secretary-General

They are a source of talent, knowledge, ideas, energy and hope – for communities, for countries, for humanity. They are agents of change and transformation. They make up 25 per cent of the global working-age population, and yet they account for 44 per cent of the global unemployed. Almost every other jobless person in the world is between the ages of 15 and 24.

This year’s International Youth Day is focused on Sustainability: Our Challenge, Our Future. Young people are central to the way we will respond to the social, economic and environmental challenges of ‘sustainability’ – but first must come a sustainable response to young people themselves. Those who have gone before them – and whose painful legacy they now inherit – must find a way to support young people in fulfilling their dreams, to give to life and take from it. Poverty, poor education, ill-health, conflict, and marginalisation are too common as obstacles to young people. Perhaps the greatest thing we can achieve for young people is to trust them sufficiently with money. Young people are entrepreneurial: they wish to be job creators, not only job takers. The best that our governments and our financial institutions can do is to trust and empower them, and give them wings. In hard times especially, I call on the suppliers of micro-finance not to retrench with young people, but to double their efforts to support them.

The Commonwealth values the contributions young people can make to enhance the lives of all citizens. Its 35-year-old Commonwealth Youth Programme is the sole intergovernmental organisation devoted to young people, in building the capacity of governments to address youth issues, while enhancing young people’s skills in relation to youth development work, entrepreneurship and income generation. We are proud of the ground-breaking work of our four regional CYP offices (Caribbean, Asia, Africa, Pacific), as centres of excellence in youth-led research and information sharing, youth work education and training, governance of national youth bodies, HIV/AIDS and conflict resolution.

Yet still we can do more. We can continue to work with national governments to develop national youth policies which bring a youth element – and budget – into every government department, and every government decision. And we can continue to support youth enterprise by scaling up our own successful Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative turned into something bigger and more sustainable – with the active involvement of governments, regional organisations, international financing institutions, and business large and small, local and international. Our Heads of Government will discuss this issue when they meet in Port of Spain in November.

This year, the Commonwealth’s 60th anniversary, is dedicated to young people. Our theme is thecommonwealth@60 – Serving a New Generation. We will continue to be true to our word.

Secretariat Links:

• Youth
• Sustainability
• CYP
• The Commonwealth@60