YTN Hosts a Youth Day Event; From Clicks to Progress

Event
Written By YTN Group

New York City — Youth Transforming Narratives (YTN) is excited to announce the huge success of its International Youth Day event, with over 150 registered young leaders, activists, and changemakers from around the world. This year’s theme was “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Inclusion in Peace and Security for Sustainable Development” which emphasized the critical role that youth play in advancing global peace and security.

International Youth Day, celebrated annually on August 12th, is a momentous occasion that highlights youth issues and celebrates the potential of young people as key partners in shaping our global society. The day provides an opportunity to elevate and mainstream young voices, actions, and initiatives, ensuring their meaningful and equitable engagement in the world’s most pressing challenges.

The event gathered keynote speakers from the peacebuilding and youth empowerment field: 

  1. Wevyn Muganda from Kenya is a youth champion and YPS expert  has over 7 years of extensive experience in youth engagement and leadership, human rights, peacebuilding, gender equality and digital technologies at the local, national and global level.

  2. Dr. Amjad Saleem, manager  of the Volunteer, Youth and Education Development Unit at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies based in Geneva, a global team focused on volunteering management, youth innovation and engagement, and education programming.

  3. Saji Prelis Co-Chair, Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security & Director, Children & Youth Programs, Search for Common Ground. Mr  Saji has over 25 years of experience working with youth movements in over 35 countries and has advised governments about ways to engage youth. As Co-Chair, Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security, he co-led successful advocacy for the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 (2015) Res 2419 (2018) and Res 2535 (2020).  Saji is also the director of children & youth programs at Search for Common Ground (SFCG). Saji received the distinguished Luxembourg Peace Prize for his Outstanding Achievements in Peace Support and obtained his Master’s Degree in International Peace & Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, DC.

The event successfully achieved the following objectives:

  1. Understanding the latest trends/ progress on the implementation of the youth peace and security agenda.

  1. Understanding bottlenecks to youth’s inclusion in peace and security for sustainable development. 

  2. Documenting recommendations to increase youth’s meaningful participation in peace and security for sustainable development. 

The three main following questions were asked:

  1. Q1: How urgent and necessary is it to include youth in peace and security for Sustainable Development?

  2. Q2:  Despite the growing recognition of the importance of youth in peace and security, significant barriers to their participation remain. What are the most pressing obstacles young people  

  3. Q3:  What strategies or policies have proven effective in overcoming these challenges? Do you recommend any from your own experience?

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