Why is empowerment of youth the key to tackling global issues

when i was 11 years old

i strolled through the city center of my

hometown with my mother

and i saw a new construction site on the

side of the main road

it revealed a big beautiful church which

i had never paid attention to before

right

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anymore

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however this was and still remains an

exception

to have children talk about their own

perspectives

specifically on policies affecting their

future

one of the one of the outcomes of this

meeting

was the implementation of a position in

charge of monitoring the rights of the

child in germany

recognizing the impact we could have

such as the initiation of this position

motivated me to continuously take part

in these processes

i am always overwhelmed to see how young

people

flourish in settings where their

opinions are appreciated

where their voice is seen on an equal

level

and where politicians are also listening

to these young voices

these politicians need to ask themselves

whether they have included young people

meaningfully in these processes as we

will be the generation

that will be living with the

consequences of the policies

shaped today there are many moments that

come to my mind

demonstrating that not everyone has

quite understood the meaning of

meaningful youth participation there are

moments in which i’ve smiled in pictures

with politicians

and the politicians neither knew my role

nor my name the caption under the

picture however

talked about the importance of

intergenerational dialogue

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also i’ve been sidelined and even

ignored in conferences as i was

considered too young to be a valuable

part of the process

there are also many youth conferences

being organized

instead of simply encouraging the young

people to participate in the real

conferences

it seems like your age determines how

eligible you are

to participate in these processes and

have a valuable contribution

exactly one year ago i was in new york

at the un general assembly

as i was the youth delegate for germany

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my role was to represent the voice of

young people

at the un general assembly and engage

with them

what their demands were so that i could

represent them at these conferences

therefore i talked to many young people

across the country

and i showed them that they can also be

a meaningful part of the solution i

collected thousands of demands and

traveled across the city for 11 months

it traveled across the country for 11

months

and therefore i wanted to present these

demands at the un general assembly

i remember each of these conversations

with young people precisely

as the youth groups ranged from young

people in juvenile prisons

to youth group which were youth groups

which were highly politicized in model

united nations

regardless of their background however

neither of them had ever been asked for

their opinion on global issues

let alone had the chance to have an

active say

in the negotiations at the u.n general

assembly

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most of them have never had a direct

contact with politics before

and therefore they did not watch the

news regularly

and most of them didn’t even know what

the united nations were

it was my role therefore to give them

the empowerment and the encouragement to

talk about the demands so that i could

represent them at the united nations

most importantly however what struck me

the most

was that they had no confidence in

themselves whatsoever

that they had the ability to shape the

policies

and contribute a valuable asset issues

to these

it was therefore my job to tell the

young people that they can

contribute these ideas and therefore i

design workshops

with two phases the key question which

made them think about these global

issues

more creatively which are also shaping

our future policies

was quite simple what would be the first

initiative

you would implement as a world leader

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the initial reaction of the young

participants was most commonly shock

as they have never been asked this

question before

and they have never been given this

responsibility before

however first they were to find as many

global problems as possible

and even though they only had half an

hour to do so

it might be unsurprising to you that

they found dozens if not

hundreds of problems clustered by topics

it also revealed that their political

knowledge was actually much broader than

they had initially suspected it to be

as there were many topics which they

wanted to discuss

so the next time you’re discussing

issues

ask a young person what their first

initiative would be as a young leader

encourage them to be the change they

seek to see in the world

there’s a common belief that a person

needs decades of experience to be part

of the solution and be able to shape

these policies

however young people bring an important

asset to the field which is often

underestimated instead of criticizing

young people

for their optimism and even idealism why

don’t we use this as a new aim to tackle

global problems instead of telling young

people that they are

immature adults and they need to grow up

before they can be part of the process

why don’t we use this as a new aim to

look at the issues

we should take their visions and use it

to approach these issues so that we can

have a more sustainable world

which we will be living in let’s not

only focus on the amount of years a

person has spent in the system

but rather also listen to the personal

expertise someone brings to the table

as young people we don’t do not have

year-long experience in the field

but are rather experts in the future we

should aim to achieve

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therefore we should try to envision a

future out of the perspective

of young people so what platforms are

there to include young people

i had the chance to sit in big

conference rooms

to join important closed meetings and

organize events for high level

representatives

however often time there is no seat

reserved for young people

as the age seems to determine how

valuable your part of the contribution

is

so the reluctant of the reluctance of

including young people in these

processes

also shows that there are new ways of

how young people are trying to shape the

world

there are alternative ways of how young

people want to contribute their part

as they are stepping up as they are

creating social media campaigns

their own movements and even their own

organizations

so new paths have been paved towards

modern political mobilization

and digital activism as there’s

as young people are speaking up and

telling the world what they actually

want to know young people have obviously

have been aware now that their voice not

only matters for decisions

but that they can also contribute a part

to the solution

as they are a meaningful puzzle piece

and trying to find the best future

policies

so thinking back to my walk through the

city with my mother

i realized that i’m also quite that i

also was quite political from a very

young age

i envisioned this idea of a beautiful

town square

without having any fear whether it was

whether there was a capability to

implement this idea

or not there was a larger change i

wanted to see in the world

and i talked about it with other young

people

specifically when i envisioned this

construction site to be transformed

into the town place i had imagined so

precisely

i was not afraid of how the world should

look

and how it can look this is also the

case for other young people

as there’s a certain fearlessness in

approaching these

targets and these goals so

let me tell you that you are never too

young

to create a change in the world your

voice is the most

powerful tool to create change so make

the most of it

speak up if you notice something that is

bothering you and if you have an idea

that can transform the world

remember that an idea which seems

insignificant

or very small can lead to a rippling

effect

creating larger change just like in my

case

so the discussions in my town hall

meeting in my local

community also led to

larger rippling effects as i was able to

create this children’s representative

body

alongside other children this ensured a

sustainable solution

to continuously have the young people

have a say

in the town hall meetings standing up at

the committee on the rights of the child

and telling that we did not accept the

answer of the representative

showed these members of the committee

what actual meaningful youth

participation

is we therefore they had a new

perspective on the issues

as they were able to imagine what young

people wanted

in their country and what this what our

perspective was on the issue that they

were discussing

talking to young people as a german

youth delegate

gave me a real insight in what concerns

young people in germany

and therefore what als what

they have for a distance to politics

usually as

they have never been given the

responsibility to shape on

any policies in their life so far

at the un general assembly bridging the

gap between

young people and the international

diplomatic level

gave me the opportunity to implement

different wording

in resolutions which have been

negotiated

it also gave the representatives the

chance to listen to the young

perspective

and therefore i hope that they will also

include

the young perspectives in the future to

clarify

i am not asking for young people to

dominate

all the discussions and to make all the

decisions by themselves

instead i’m saying that we need to

discuss these issues

commonly as young people contribute a

valuable asset

to the discussions which has not been

included so far

just as much as we can learn from the

older generation

the older generation should also learn

something

from the young generation there is a

common saying stating that we do not

inherit the earth from our ancestors

but we rather borrow it from our

children

this means to me that it is even a moral

responsibility

to include young people in these

processes for it is our future which is

being shaped today

in order to tackle the global issues and

reach the goals we have set

we all need to contribute to the

solutions and make our voice heard

let’s just look at the facts over half

of the global population

is under the age of 30 but only 2

percent of the representatives are

so make the most of your voice dare to

have the creativity of

young people listen to others and care

for the future

which you are borrowing from the

children

thank you