Statement of UN Mongolia on International Youth Day 2020
SocietyUlaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. International Youth Day (IYD) is an opportunity to
celebrate and mainstream young peoples’ voices, actions and initiatives, as
well as their meaningful, universal and equitable engagement. For
Mongolia, it is particularly important because the youth are one-third of
the entire population. If the right investment is made and youth are actively
engaged, Mongolia has the potential to drive economic development, positive
social change, environmental sustainability, and technological innovation.
The theme of International Youth Day 2020, “Youth
Engagement for Global Action” seeks to highlight the ways in
which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels
is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as
draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional
politics can be significantly enhanced.
As the United
Nations turns 75, and with only 10 years remaining to make the 2030
Agenda a reality for all, trust in public institutions is eroding. At
the international level, against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized
world, the international system of governance is currently undergoing a crisis
of legitimacy and relevance. In particular, this crisis is rooted in the need
to strengthen the capacity of the international system to act in concert and
implement solutions to pressing challenges and threats including emerging
technological risks, backsliding democracies, shrinkage of civic space and
crisis of governance, as well as global challenges, such as the COVID-19 outbreak
and climate change.
Enabling the engagement of youth in formal political
mechanisms increases the fairness of political processes by reducing democratic
deficits, contributes to better and more sustainable policies, and also is
important to restore trust in public institutions, especially among youth.
Moreover, the vast majority of challenges humanity currently faces, such as the
COVID-19 outbreak and climate change require concerted global action and the
meaningful engagement and participation of young people to be addressed
effectively.
In Mongolia, the UN Youth Advisory Panel (UNYAP) has been
engaged in supporting the activities of the UN and is also playing a very
active role in the UN75 initiative. We look forward to working with UNYAP and
all the youth in Mongolia to enable inclusive and sustainable development for
all Mongolians, leaving no one behind and leveraging the potential of youth to
usher in transformative change.
United Nations Mongolia, through all our agencies, remains
committed to help young people realize their full potential in life,
participate in the development of Mongolia and ensure their rights are
protected and their needs, aspirations and ideals are at the core of our work
as enshrined in United Nation’s Youth2030 Strategy as well as the Youth Development
Programme approved by the Government of Mongolia in 2018.
Please do join #31DaysOfYOUth, a social media campaign that
celebrates young people throughout the month of August to help spread the word
and strike up a conversation surrounding youth engagement for global action!
Source: UN Mongolia