International Youth Day: Envisioning A Future We Want

Our world is constantly striving for a better tomorrow and to do that, the cornerstone premise must be to develop and celebrate our youth in all their endeavors. However, as we are all aware, our youth face many challenges at every nook and cranny of their life as they deal with the consequences of our previous generations’ actions on the planet. When thinking about these challenges, it’s important to remember that we must partner with the global youth community on any program or initiative we take on at the world stage. There are 2.2 billion children - potential that we can develop on an endless scale to achieve a beautiful future for all.?

In 1991, International Youth Day (IYD) was established on August 12 by the UN General Assembly to address the difficulties our youth experience across the globe while also recognizing, empowering, and celebrating them on their positive contributions and efforts to serve their communities and nations. The UN created IYD to bring to attention these major issues and to encourage us to find effective solutions to tackle them - making it a day for not just reflection but also to take action.

In the 21st century, we are witnessing the largest generation of youth in history and they represent more than just our hope for a better tomorrow - they are also our present. Another interesting fact is the impact of the digital revolution on youth. With the advent of technological and medical innovation, youth in the current age are the most connected, outspoken, and open-minded generation to be seen. So much so that we see the impact of youth initiatives and efforts in harboring and bringing positive changes on a national and global level. They can shape our world, both in the present and in the future by raising awareness on various issues and taking long-term actions to resolve them through constant collaboration.?

However, despite all this potential they hold, there are pertinent issues that this key section of our world population continues to face, so much so that we need to understand how we are failing to empower them. Over half of our children between the ages of 6 and 13 lack basic reading and math skills, and childhood poverty continues to remain a prevalent problem to address globally. These same groups of children suffer from the powerful grip of poverty and diseases as well as a lack of access to resources, holistic education, and growth opportunities. This ultimately restricts progress, dreams, and the evolution of world-changing abilities that enable them to function as independent adults in their later years.?

To further complicate the impact of this problem, our future lies in our youth as the vital actors behind boosting growth and fostering development in any society. But for this to happen, they need all the required resources to support that we can provide them the platforms they need to take on impact-driven endeavors that will eventually transform our communities and countries. We can also see the world's youth consistently pushing for the global community to address interlinked challenges like tackling poverty, boosting social inclusiveness, improving healthcare, conserving biodiversity, and mitigating climate change. Considering the number and extensiveness of the challenges and issues we face today, our world must leverage this generation’s full potential by promoting intergenerational solidarity and fostering relations and partnerships as the key to sustainable development and achieving the SDGs.?

There is one severe barrier that is preventing this intergenerational solidarity called ageism. Ageism is a mental mind frame based on stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination wherein it is rampant enough to impact our youth in a drastic manner. It is an insidious issue in various areas with possibilities to impact both older and younger populations as it often intersects with other biases such as racism and sexism, thus preventing individuals from reaching their full potential. Our younger generations continue to report age-related barriers in various spheres of life, including employment, political participation, health, and justice, which impacts both well-being and quality of livelihood over an individual’s life. To add to this, it also prevents the required thinking behind creating policies and social services that could serve as life-course approaches that are fair for every age.

To effectively end this problem, intergenerational interventions will be one of the best strategies to ensure inclusive and sustainable recoveries. As the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, it’s important that we realize and tackle this stigmatic barrier to help build our societies back better. We must leverage the plethora of knowledge and potential across generations. For this reason, the theme for IYD 2022 is “Intergenerational solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages” to push the message for action that is needed now more than ever by all generations in achieving the SDGs by not leaving a single person behind. The theme therefore is building momentum on tackling ageism in healthcare, employment, and politics while uprooting its detrimental effects from our societies.

Social organizations and countries should host and deliver events and initiatives that bring different generations to discuss and tackle problems together as one team. Without each others' support and cross-generational understanding, we will only achieve our global goals either halfway or not at all - the latter of which would leave us in a worse state than before at a time when effective long-term action is needed to mitigate issues like climate change, educational inequity, and dire poverty. By bridging these gaps between generations through global and national events, we will break the harmful stereotypes and ultimately push forth the realization that we're all in this together and as the human civilisation working together, we can end the dreadful challenges we face to ultimately create the future we envision for ourselves as an interconnected human civilization.

Written by Yuvika Bhatia, Content Strategist at Ground Z.?