Thoughts from Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth
2020 was a year like never before, with COVID-19 turning our lives and work upside down.
In previous years, one of the favourite parts of my job has been the privilege to connect with young people in person, bringing the UN closer to them and bringing them closer to the UN, while also learning about their aspirations and challenges first-hand. Yet this all changed in 2020 as the pandemic shifted all of my work online.
Like many other young people, adapting to this “new normal” was a challenge for me, and the constant feeling of crisis and contagious anxiety is, more often than not, overwhelming.
To cope with these complex feelings, I found my strength from young people around the world, who, despite being disproportionately affected by the pandemic and the inequalities that it exacerbated, have risen to the challenge by leading the COVID-19 response in the frontlines while continuing their advocacy, work and studies against all odds.
Despite remaining physically distanced, I have never felt more connected to the world’s 1.8 billion young people than today.
Shifting our work online has undoubtedly allowed for broader participation of youth in many UN spaces that were otherwise not widely accessible. While my team and I have made it our priority to make this mode of engagement as inclusive and accessible as possible, I cannot help but think about the millions of young people who are missing out on all the opportunities we are creating, due to lack of access to technology or internet. Those young people who need us the most.
Due to the community of millions of young advocates, leaders, changemakers, volunteers, artists, students, peacebuilders and human rights defenders from every region in the world and working on the most diverse topics, 2020 was also an exciting year in terms of seeing young people take rightful ownership of the UN system-wide youth strategy, Youth2030.
Young people embraced and led Youth2030 in an unprecedented way!
2020 was also marked by the magnitude of young people’s collective need to transform the world. In every region, we saw youth raising their voices, online and offline, often times risking their safety and lives, defending the human rights of all and demanding changes for the benefit of people across every generation.
This year has shown us that more than ever before, we need a UN that is able and ready to support fully, empower and meaningfully engage young people in all their diversity, including those most often marginalized and left behind. This is especially true as the UN marks 75 years and looks forward to the next 75 years ahead.
I continue to strongly believe that the only way to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 is by fully involving young people at all levels. This report summarizes the efforts taken by my team and I this year to get us one step closer to realizing that goal.
I also take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to all funding partners and donors of my Office, whose kind contributions enable us to carry out our essential work.
None of the activities in this report would have been possible without the commitment, passion, drive and expertise of my team, who work extremely hard every day with limited resources to make the UN fit for youth. My deepest gratitude goes out to all of them.
1 year in 1 minute
YOUTH2030 SECRETARIAT
In 2020, the Envoy on Youth participated in over 400 events, online and offline, and conveyed pre-recorded video messages to over 100 events and campaigns.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth spearheaded the UN's advocacy on youth issues while employing new approaches to ensure the delivery of its programmes.
A set of two Youth2030 Scorecards are being advanced — a scorecard for UN entities which is in development, in addition to a 20-indicator Youth2030 UN Country Team Scorecard which has been finalized after an online field validation exercise from July to September in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, and Uzbekistan (three of the ten Fast-Track Countries for accelerated action on Youth2030). The data outputs from both scorecards will be linked to a public-facing dashboard, with automated analytics, for visualization of scores and comparison of time trends and performance (the dashboard is currently in development and will be available for public view in early 2021).
It was also an unprecedented year for Youth2030 — the UN systemwide youth strategy. The Youth2030 Secretariat — hosted by the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth — took significant strides in advancing the monitoring, evaluation and reporting against the strategy, while also ramping up high-level political engagement, communication and advocacy.
The following report includes highlights from the past year working towards advancing Youth2030 with and for youth around the world.
Engagement, Participation and Advocacy
UN75 Global Dialogues with Young People
In support of the UN75 Global Dialogues, we organized a number of dedicated channels to ensure young people had the opportunity to meaningfully engage in the UN75 outcomes, including:
- A virtual youth Town Hall meeting which brought together more than 2,000 young people from all regions of the world, in addition to another 550 written inputs received in advance through an online survey
- The UN75 Youth Plenary in the lead up to UN General Assembly week, which gathered more than 2,000 young people from around the world, discussing the importance of multilateralism and the future of the UN (4 young people from the Plenary also spoke during the high-level UN75 event)
#LeadTheNewNormal Essay Competition
Also in support of UN75, we hosted an essay competition titled “The Future We Want, The UN We Need” which gathered more than 800 submissions with ideas, solutions and suggestions on how the UN can #LeadTheNewNormal to build a better future (the winning essay was published in Devex)
Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals
The Young Leaders for the SDGs recognizes 17 Young Leaders from around the world who contribute to implementing the 2030 Agenda, fostering resilience of their communities, proposing innovative solutions, driving social progress and inspiring political change through diverse youth-led initiatives.
Launched digitally during UN General Assembly Week, the announcement of the 2020 class of Young Leaders featured:
- Nearly 8,000 applications from 172 countries
- A potential reach of 18.2 million, with nearly 540,000 engagements and 21,000 engagements across social media
- Extensive media coverage including 157 articles in 11 languages from 23 countries, as well as 2 radio appearances and 11 additional interviews with the Young Leaders
This year also marked the official end of the term of the 2018 class of Young Leaders. Upon completing their term, they had conducted activities in 32 countries and 63 cities, carrying out over 200 media engagements and securing over 50 partnerships during their two-year term.
Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
Building on the youth climate movement, we supported the UN Secretary-General in the launch of his first-ever Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. The 7-member group is tasked with advising the Secretary-General on his approach to climate action and bringing the priorities and perspectives of young people into UN decision-making on climate change.
Reach Not Preach
As a virtual platform that allows young activists to share their stories, present their initiatives on climate change, and access resources from the UN and its partners, Reach Not Preach provides a safe digital space for young people to share their unfiltered opinions on the global climate emergency.
In 2020, the platform featured op-eds from 76 youth voices around the world, attracting 8,494 unique online visitors and 12,917 total visitors in site traffic.
International Youth Day and #31DaysOfYOUth
To mark International Youth Day (12 August), we launched the #31DaysOfYOUth campaign. This month-long activation celebrated the world's largest generation of young people and called for greater investment, support and commitment for young people in all their diversity.
We asked young people to share their stories in any form they like on how they are changing the world and achieving the SDGs.
The hashtag #31DaysOfYOUth was used more than 9,200 times throughout the duration of the campaign.
Launch of #YouthLead
Together with Twitter for Good, we ran a campaign to create the first-ever #YouthLead emoji, designed by young people, for young people. The emoji launched via a digital activation on social media to coincide with the second anniversary of Youth2030.
The hashtag was translated into 23 languages, and gained 506,297 impressions and 9,284 engagements during UN General Assembly week alone.
To date, the English language hashtag has been used nearly 12,000 times since the launch in September.
The hashtag will remain active until at least International Youth Day in August 2021.
Young People Fighting COVID-19
With the onset of COVID-19, we brought attention to lesser-known stories of youth rising to meet the challenge of the pandemic. Through a total of 13 blog posts published on Medium, we highlighted different young leaders and youth organizations from 66 countries and territories.
A total of 130 stories of young people and youth organizations were shared between March and August 2020. Amongst these articles, several focused specifically on those marginalized young people most often left furthest behind — including special editions featuring young people with disabilities, young LGBTIQ+ people, young refugees and young human rights defenders.
Engaging with Young People via Social Media
At the end of 2020, over 366,000 people follow and engage with us over our social media channels — Instagram, Twitter and Facebook:
We also engaged with young people in China via Weibo, supporting the main UN account, and reaching 3.53 million people via our posts on the platform throughout 2020.
Informed and Healthy Foundations
COPING WITH COVID WEBINARS
Through the #CopingWithCOVID webinar series — organized in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF — we provided a platform to thousands of young people worldwide, including 45 young speakers from 35 different countries, to share and connect on their mental health concerns during a time of increased stress and anxiety.
We reached over 35,000 viewers to date, 23,267 of which watched the webinars within the first 24 hours of airing — culminating in over 5 million total impressions across all digital platforms.
Economic Empowerment through Decent Work
World Youth Skills Day
On World Youth Skills Day (15 July) we co-hosted a virtual panel discussion on “Skills for a Resilient Youth in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” — together with the Permanent Missions of Portugal and Sri Lanka to the UN, UNESCO and the ILO.
MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIPS FOR YOUTH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
We published a op-ed with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) titled “Resilience and Strength Shine Brightest – COVID-19 recovery offers the chance to create a more just, compassionate and sustainable economy for history’s largest generation of youth.” The article focused on the need for greater investment in mental health and labour market policies for young people to be able to succeed in the aftermath of the pandemic.
We also continued to support Solutions for Youth Employment and Decent Jobs for Youth, both of which are multi-stakeholder coalitions that aim to provide leadership and resources to increase the number of young people engaged in productive work, including by creating quality jobs for young people.
Youth and Human Rights
Protection of Young People
Throughout 2020, we continued to co-chair the Protection Working Group established under the Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security, supporting global coordination efforts to strengthen the protection of young people active in civic spaces who are often exposed to violence and harassment due to their activism.
Since it was launched in November 2019, we have worked together with Search For Common Ground to organize more than 13 meetings and mapped more than 30 relevant reports, identifying 15 advocacy tools and more than 20 emergency funds for urgent assistance and relocation support.
Between July and October, we conducted 6 consultations on protecting young people, involving more than 130 youth activists worldwide. We also created a global survey collecting and analyzing more than 300 responses, and gathered data through bilateral interviews with more than 10 youth activists. The final report based on this research will be published in 2021.
Joint Statement on Recent Violent Escalations During Youth-led Protests Around the World
On 30 October — together with the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, and the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions — we published a joint-statement in response to recent violent escalations during youth-led protests around the world.
The statement reaffirmed our solidarity with all young people protesting peacefully around the world and called for their inclusion in meaningful dialogues so that their grievances and demands for more just societies will be heard.
The short video accompanying the statement was viewed more than 3,100 times on social media, amassing more than 22,500 impressions and 1,100 engagements.
Young Human Rights Defenders Adapting to COVID-19
On International Human Rights Day (10 December), we partnered with Amnesty International’s Global Youth Collective to publish a blog featuring insights and perspectives from 10 young human rights defenders around the world.
The launch post achieved nearly 54,000 impressions on social media, including 800 engagements.
ENGAGING LGBTIQ+ YOUTH
On the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (17 May), we hosted an Instagram Live conversation on the experiences and challenges of LGBTIQ+ youth during COVID-19, featuring leadership from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and two youth activists.
We also published a blog post amplifying the work of 10 LGBTIQ+ young activists from 9 different countries, and followed this up in July by co-publishing an article with the ILGA World Youth Steering Committee titled “Don't let the pandemic marginalize LGBTIQ+ people further” on the World Economic Forum's website.
Engaging Youth with Disabilities
Throughout 2020, we organized a series of informal consultations with youth with disabilities to hear directly from them about their vision regarding ways in which the UN can support and further enhance discussions, awareness and understanding about the challenges faced by youth with disabilities and the possible solutions.
These informal consultations were followed by a global virtual consultation on 23 November, co-hosted with partners, which fed into an official high-level side event alongside the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
In total, 75 young people with disabilities from 51 countries were consulted through the processes, which will help to inform planning for the coming years.
Peace and Resilience Building
UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 2535 ON YOUTH, PEACE AND SECURITY
In July, the unanimous adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2535 was a milestone moment in driving forward momentum to operationalize the youth, peace and security agenda at country-level.
This year, we also supported in drafting the Secretary-General's first-ever report on youth, peace and security, and later briefed the Security Council on some of its key recommendations alongside young peacebuilders.
The launch of the report achieved a total of 503,430 impressions and 22,106 engagements on social media, which was coupled with a social media takeover by young peacebuilders, reaching an additional 17,000 views.
5th Anniversary of the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda
2020 marked the 5th anniversary of the youth, peace and security agenda (first launched on 9 December 2015 with Resolution 2250).
We co-organized and participated in a virtual high-level anniversary event and a Security Council Arria-Formula meeting to renew commitments and identify priorities to create an enabling environment, further strengthen institutional capacities and ensure the successful realization of the agenda.
At the event, the new “Youth, Peace and Security Adviser's Handbook” was also launched, with the Folke Bernadotte Academy.
To highlight key milestones and moments over the past 5 years, we partnered with Twitter for Good to publish a “Twitter Moment” which was promoted by partners.
When #YouthLead on Women, Peace and Security
In light of multiple anniversary events this year, we launched the “When #YouthLead on Women, Peace and Security” campaign to provide an opportunity to raise global awareness on the intersections of gender, youth, and peace and security. The campaign kicked off on 31 October (the 20th anniversary of Resolution 1325) and ran until the week of 9 December (the 5th anniversary of Resolution 2250).
By providing an inclusive, unbranded channel for all partners working in these spaces to share their work, the campaign invited young women peacebuilders — and their strongest advocates and supporters — to record short videos to be shared over social media and other channels, responding to the question “Why is young women’s participation in peacebuilding essential?”
Through the campaign, we received more than 45 videos from peacebuilders around the world, including a number of high-profile youth activists and prominent senior UN leaders who are strong advocates and supporters of these agendas. The campaign achieved a total potential reach of over 13.5 million, including more than 16,500 engagements with the posts, and more than 1,300 hours of video watch time.
#YOUTH4PEACEANDCLIMATE
In 2020, for the first time, we worked on the intersections between youth, peace and security, and climate action. Together with the International Peace Institute (IPI) and partners, we organized a “Youth, Peace and Climate Action” event.
A “Tweet Chat” on the intersections between youth, peace and climate was hosted in the lead up to the event. The chat launched the hashtag #Youth4PeaceAndClimate, and was designed to drive awareness towards the event, in addition to serving as a platform for young people to share their views and questions. The chat achieved over 25 million impressions across all user accounts, including 2,062 engagements, and 399 unique post authors from 65 countries.
International Refugee Day: #ForYou Campaign
On International Refugee Day (20 June), we supported the #ForYou social media campaign by the UNHCR Global Youth Advisory Council, highlighting positive contributions by young displaced people in the context of COVID-19. We also partnered with UNHCR on an Instagram and Twitter takeover with two young refugees from Uganda and Syria.
On the same day, we launched a blog post focused on the positive contributions of ten young refugees fighting COVID-19 in their communities.
WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME STORYTELLERS INSTAGRAM TAKEOVER
With the aim of raising awareness of the important ways young refugees are contributing to their communities, and to provide a platform for youth to share their stories, we hosted an Instagram Takeover with the World Food Programme, featuring refugees participating in their Storytellers Programme.
The takeover featured a total of 72 short videos, culminating in 27,068 impressions and 369 engagements.
Strengthening the Foundations for a UN that Delivers Foundational Support for Young People
Fellowship Programme
This year, we said goodbye to unpaid internships, introducing a new fellowship programme, developed in collaboration with UN Volunteers (UNV) and explicitly designed to provide more meaningful and paid employment opportunities for young people at the UN.
During the first selection process, in which 4 fellowship roles were advertised for young people with up to two-years of prior working experience, we received thousands of applications from qualified and passionate candidates from around the world.
On the occasion of International Volunteers Day (5 December), we launched a campaign to introduce our first class of fellows, bring further visibility to this new programme, and mobilize other UN teams to put an end to unpaid internships as well.
On all digital channels, this initial launch achieved:
- A potential reach of over 1 million
- Nearly 78,000 impressions
- More than 2,400 engagements
- Nearly 3,700 unique video views
Believe in Better: A Working Paper
In partnership with Action Aid Denmark and supported by Restless Development and the Major Group for Children and Youth, we launched Believe in Better — a working paper on young people's inclusion in national follow up, review, and accountability processes of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Young Women's Political Participation
On 18 November, we co-organized with the Inter Parliamentary Union a virtual conference on Young Women’s Political Participation and Leadership. The event promoted young women’s political participation by placing young women leaders at the center stage to identify, in cooperation with other key stakeholders, concrete steps to be taken to enhance young women’s engagement in political decision-making.
The event saw the active participation of over 50 people, of which about 1/3 were members of parliament.
International Day of the Girl Takeover
On International Day of the Girl (11 October), we partnered with Plan International for the second consecutive year to host a “Girl Takeover” with Shirley, a girl delegate from Ghana.
As part of the takeover, Shirley participated in a number of virtual activations with the office, discussing how the UN can support her work and advocacy, including on issues facing young women and girls in her community, such as ending child marriage and teenage pregnancy.
Shirley also took over our Instagram channel, sharing her story and engaging with young people around the world who follow the account. Across social media, the takeover achieved a total of 56,813 impressions, including 2,037 engagements and 102 shares.
The #Youth4ClimateLive Series — hosted together with the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea and Connect4Climate (World Bank Group) — brings together a diverse group of unstoppable youth at the forefront of creative climate action for intergenerational and interactive conversations with policymakers and experts in the run-up to Pre-COP26 in Milan and COP26 in Glasgow.
Over the course of the series, over 3,000 unique participants have joined from 117 countries, and over 100,000 people have watched the series live on social media. The #Youth4Climate hashtag has generated a potential reach of 166 million people.
In August 2020, the #Youth4Climate series launched the #SumItUp competition, inviting youth to submit a one-minute video reflection or a visual infographic on the key takeaways from one of the episodes to win a chance to join Pre-COP26 next year. The contest ends 31 March 2021.
World Environment Day Event — “Youth Choice: Recovering Better Together”
On World Environment Day (5 June), we co-hosted, with partners, a virtual discussion on “Youth Choice: Recovering Better Together” to give young leaders a platform to share their priorities for a green recovery directly with UN Member States.
The Youth Choice Instagram Filter was created as part of a pre-event campaign, reaching 139,200 impressions and nearly 4,700 captures in the first week of its launch.
Fridays For Future Social Media Takeovers
Between May and August, we organized regular Twitter Takeovers with Fridays For Future in response to the limited offline spaces for young activists to conduct their demonstrations and to provide them with a safe online platform to continue their activism. These takeovers helped elevate youth voices and amplify Fridays For Future’s reach on social media, enabling them to reach audiences beyond their own networks.
Highlights of Some Additional Work with Partners to Support Youth
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Credits:
Created with an image by OrnaW - "black lives matter protest demonstration"