Opinion | This International Youth Day, let’s celebrate how young people are fighting for a better, more sustainable world
- More highly educated and tech-savvy than previous generations, young people around the world are rising to global challenges with empathy and innovation
As we approach International Youth Day, it is crucial to acknowledge and celebrate the distinctive qualities and contributions that young people make for our global society, knitting the world more closely together.
The first International Youth Day, celebrated on August 12, 2000, was designated by the United Nations to raise awareness of youth. This year’s theme is “Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World”.
The concept of youth can be nebulous. It is often classified as those aged between 15 and 24 years, a group of around 1.2 billion that forms 16 per cent of the world’s populace. Strikingly, more than half of the global population is under the age of 30. However, a mere 2.6 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide fall into this age group.
Youth networks and social impact organisations, such as the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, One Young World and Global Shapers Community, kindle global movements and foster new waves of globalisation.
