Youth and the MDGs

I am honoured to be here tonight and also to be your keynote speaker. I am proud to say that I was, am, and will continue to be, a youth advocate. Fortunately, you don’t have to be young to stand up for young people's human rights!

I would like to begin by thanking the Global Youth Action Network for taking the initiative to organize this reception tonight. That’s real leadership.

I would also like to thank the sponsors of tonight’s event, namely the Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations, People Speak/the United Nations Foundation, and the NGO Committee on Youth. Thank you very much. Your support means more than support for just this event—it means support for young people and their right to be heard and participate in world affairs.

We are gathered here tonight to showcase what young people are doing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. They are doing a lot. The Millennium Campaign is active in some 75 countries and young people are vital partners.

All over the world, young people are chasing the dream of a better life. I look forward to the multimedia presentation on youth activism and the art exhibition, “Creative Change”. I also hope all of you have had a chance to visit the photo exhibition in the public lobby of the United Nations, called Chasing the Dream: Youth Faces of the MDGs . It shows, in ways that words cannot describe, how young people are fighting for their lives and their rights. It shows that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are important to young people and that young people are important to the goals.

This brings me to the two main points I would like to stress tonight. One is that we as leaders must focus on young people and invest in young people if we want to achieve the MDGs. And the other is that we must work directly with young people and support their participation and leadership in order to achieve the MDGs by 2015.

We have to spend more money on the education, health and employment of youth and we have to join hands with them and listen to them as we move forward together in the countdown to 2015. Today, many groups are excluded from the development agenda and these include very young adolescents, married children, street children and adolescents living alone with no parents. Young people must be involved in the development and execution of plans, policies and programmes. If we do not work together, we will shortchange ourselves and jeopardize our chances of success. I truly believe it is really that simple and I will tell you why.

It is essential that we invest in young people for two reasons.

The first reason is that there are 1.5 billion young people in developing countries who are between the ages of 10 and 24 and they deserve their fair share. You are the future, as we all like to say; and even more importantly, you are the present. Young people constitute nearly one third of the total population of developing countries and are a dynamic force for change.

But greater investments must be targeted to their well-being. Young people, against a background of often limited economic growth, face increasing competition for jobs and other economic opportunities.

Investing in the education and health of the current youth generation will pay off—in terms of improved productivity, reduced health costs and enhanced social capital. On the other hand, if we fail to invest in their well-being—in their education, health and employment—we will further entrench poverty for generations to come. This is the first reason we must invest in young people: Because young people account for such a large share of the population in developing countries and deserve a large share of resources to guarantee social and economic progress.

The second reason we must invest more in young people is because five of the MDGs cover areas in which young people are directly involved and the goals will not be achieved unless we focus on youth. I am talking about the goals to: 

• Eradicate poverty;
• Achieve universal primary education;
• Promote gender equality and empower women;
• Improve maternal health;
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB; and
• Develop a global partnership for development.

Let me first address the goal on poverty. The target is to reduce by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger. Applying the poverty line of $1 a day to young people, it is estimated that one in four young people in developing countries are living in extreme poverty. So, if we want to be effective in reducing poverty, we have to focus on youth. With regard to reducing hunger, it makes sense to focus on young women. Their nutritional status affects not only them but also their children. So, we need to improve their nutritional status because today too many young mothers are malnourished and anaemic.

When it comes to the empowerment of women and gender equality, a focus on youth is absolutely essential. In general, young people are more amenable to changes in social norms than persons who are older and more set in their ways. We have to intensify efforts and mount public awareness campaigns that stigmatize discrimination and violence against women and girls. And, as the target for this goal highlights, we must accelerate action to close the gender gap in education. Study after study shows the many benefits of investing in girls’ education.

Goal 5 to improve maternal health clearly requires a focus on young women. The percentage of births to women under 20 years of age in the least developed countries is double that of the developed countries. And this puts their lives and those of their babies at risk. Reducing maternal and infant mortality requires universal access to reproductive health and rights. This is particularly important for young women, who currently face the highest risk and yet have the least access to reproductive health information and services.

This is also true for HIV and AIDS. Today, half of all new infections occur among young people, 7,000 every day, and young women are being the hardest hit. This is the first generation growing up with the daily reality of AIDS. And it is crystal clear that we will never reverse the pandemic unless young people have the information and services they need. With no cure in sight, our first line of defense remains prevention.

And with 100 million youth entering the global workforce each year, we better start devising strategies for decent work, as stated in Millennium Goal 8, on a global partnership for development. It is well known that the lack of productive work for young people has numerous consequences, including the perpetuation of poverty, and it is associated with high levels of crime, substance abuse, conflict and the rise of political extremism. This highlights the links between development and peace and security.

So clearly, the case for investing in the education, health, employment and human rights of youth is a strong one. And just as strong is the case for working side by side with young people to achieve the MDGs. They have the ideas, determination, energy and passion to help us accelerate effective action. And with their honesty, they can help keep us on track and accountable.

As the Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, I am committed to promoting youth partnership and leadership—to providing young people the space to freely express themselves and to have their views considered, appreciated, respected and acted upon. Young people have a right to participation. At UNFPA, we have a Youth Advisory Panel, which will meet at this end of this month and which advises us on planning, policy-making and programming. And we work closely with various youth groups and networks in every region and in many countries to promote sexual and reproductive health, human rights and gender equality. We value our partnership with young people and we are learning a lot from them. And we will certainly do our part to ensure that young people are involved in the national plans for the MDGs.

In closing, I would like to stress that the document adopted by world leaders at the Summit today is a big step forward. It is a step forward in the fight against poverty. It is a step forward in the fight against AIDS. It is a step forward in the fight for gender equality. And, for all of us at UNFPA and all of our friends and supporters, it is a real victory. It is a victory because world leaders have committed themselves to achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015, as set out at the International Conference on Population and Development, and to integrate this goal into strategies to achieve the MDGs.

It is a big step, but it is still just a step. Now, we need to run. Now that we have this high level of commitment we must build on it and accelerate and scale up action. We will not achieve our goals for development and peace and security, unless and until young people are brought into the picture and made part of the process. When leaders fight a war, they call on their young people. Young people should also be summoned in the fight against poverty, discrimination, maternal death and HIV/AIDS. Making poverty history means making the exclusion and sidelining of young people history. The only way we will ensure greater peace and social justice for all is if we join hands and work together. We will work side by side in the countdown to 2015.

Thank you.