Involving youth in global multilateralism is important for a more sustainable future: PGA

President of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Maldives, Abdulla Shahid has asserted that the involvement of young women and men in global multilateralism is significant to lay the foundations for a more inclusive and sustainable future.

The Maldivian foreign minister made this remark at his keynote address at the ‘Future We Want’ Model United Nations (UN), on Friday.

Highlighting that the youth community is the future and first and foremost, “our present”, PGA Shahid revealed that this makes it crucial to the UN’s mission to ensure their meaningful engagement in the UN multilateral system, by prioritizing their full participation and recognizing their integral role in decision-making.

He went on to note that the commitment to engage meaningfully with young people and to bring youth voices, experiences and ideas to global debates, building the open exchanges and collaboration that are needed for positive change at present, has been clearly brought out by the UN Secretary General in his “Our Common Agenda” report.

Noting that young people have “consistently” demonstrated their capacity to advocate for themselves and their communities and to thereby address many of the challenges the globe faces, PGA Shahid added that they play an increasingly important role in designing, co-producing knowledge, providing solutions and raising awareness for climate action.

This makes putting young people front and center, and ensuring they feel ownership over the multilateral system, vastly significant. He said that this includes the UN which is at the “heart” of international cooperation.

Highlighting that from climate change to pandemics, the world youth communities are inheriting suffers from many interlocking challenges which disproportionately affect those most vulnerable, PGA Shahid stressed that from global communities all the way up to the UN, young people “must” be involved in the decisions that will shape their destinies and futures.

PGA Shahid added that underscoring youth perspectives on global issues and identifying new ways of engaging them in decision-making requires not only tangible commitments by governments but a “complete” reorientation of the functioning of the multilateral system.

With this being said, the PGA urged to amplify the voices that are all too often marginalized.