Meaningful youth engagement advances the achievement of sustainable development, peace and security, human rights, and gender equality goals.

 

 Referred to as the “torchbearers” of the Sustainable Development Goals, youth played a major role in the process to secure agreement on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With some 90 Sustainable Development Goal indicators deemed to be youth-related, youth have a vested interest in the realization of the Goals.7 As illustrated in the figure below, they stand to benefit significantly from the achievement of the Goals and, as outlined in subsequent sections, they are playing a major role as partners and participants in implementation. Youth are also crucial actors in strengthening peace and security. When engaged as partners for peace, they help to shift a widespread perception of mistrust of young people, to more accurately presenting youth as “positive and constructive social agents” who play an essential role in building sustainable peace. The normative foundation for youth-led peacebuilding efforts was laid in Security Council resolution 2250 (2015), with an emphasis on participation, protection, prevention, partnerships, and disengagement and reintegration. Young people have also been at the forefront of efforts to promote and protect human rights, exercising their right to freedom of information, opinion, expression, association and assembly, both online and offline. They are frequently at the fore of efforts to achieve gender equality and realize the rights of women and girls. They have also been leading global efforts to ensure that decision-making spaces are inclusive for all, especially young women, adolescents, youth with disabilities, indigenous youth, and refugee and migrant youth. By advocating for their active inclusion in policy spaces, young people provide diverse perspectives that improve and inform critical decisions.