How we can help young people build a better future Henrietta Fore
Today, there are 1.8 billion young people
between the ages
of 10 and 24 in the world.
It is the largest cohort in human history.
Meeting their needs
will be a big challenge.
But it’s also a big opportunity.
They hold our shared future
in their hands.
Every day, we read about young people
lending their ideas and passions
to fighting for change,
social change, political change,
change in their communities.
Imagine what they’ll create:
breakthroughs, inventions.
Maybe new medicines,
new modes of transportation,
new ways to communicate,
sustainable economies
and maybe even a world at peace.
But this opportunity, this youth dividend,
is not a given.
One point eight billion
young women and young men
are standing at the door of adulthood.
Are they ready?
Right now, too few of them are.
My favorite part of my job at UNICEF
is a chance to talk to, meet with
and hear from young people
all around the world.
And they tell me
about their hopes and dreams.
And they have amazing hopes and dreams
for what they’ll accomplish
in their lives.
But what they’re also telling me
is that they have fears.
They feel that they’re facing
a series of urgent crises.
A crisis of demographics,
a crisis of education,
a crisis of employment,
a crisis of violence
and a crisis for girls.
If you look at these crises,
you realize that they’re urgent
and they need to be addressed now.
Because they tell us that they’re worried.
They’re worried that they might not get
the education that they need.
And you know what?
They’re right.
Two hundred million adolescents
are out of school worldwide,
about the population of Brazil.
And those that are in school
feel that they may not be getting
the right skills.
Globally, six in 10
children and young people
do not meet the minimum proficiency level
for reading and mathematics.
No country can be successful
if nearly half of its population
of young people
are unable to read or write.
And what about the lucky few
who are in secondary school?
Many of them are dropping out
because they’re worried
that they’re not getting skills
that they can use to make a livelihood.
And sometimes, their parents
can no longer afford the fees.
It’s a tragedy.
And young people are also telling me
that they’re worried about employment,
that they won’t be able to find a job.
And again, they’re right.
Every month, 10 million
young people reach working age.
It’s a staggering number.
Some will go on for further education,
but many will enter the workforce.
And our world is not creating
10 million new jobs each month.
The competition is fierce
for the jobs that are available.
So, imagine being a young person today,
needing a job, seeking a livelihood,
ready to build a future,
and opportunities are hard to find.
Young people are also telling me
that they’re worried that they’re not
getting the skills that they need.
And again, they’re right.
We are finding ourselves
at a time in the world
when the world
is changing so fast for work.
We’re in the fourth industrial revolution.
Young people do not want to be
on the farms and in rural communities.
They want to go to the cities.
They want to learn future skills
for future work.
They want to learn digital technology
and green technologies.
They want to have a chance
to learn modern agriculture.
They want to learn business
and entrepreneurship,
so that they can create
a business of their own.
They want to be nurses and radiologists
and pharmacists and doctors.
And they want to have all of the skills
that they’ll need for the future.
They also want to learn the trades,
like construction and electricians.
These are all the professions
that a country needs,
as well as the professions
that have not been invented yet.
And young people are also telling me
that they’re worried about violence.
At home, online, in school,
in their communities.
And again, they’re right.
A young person can have
hundreds of friends on social media,
but when they need
to find a friendly face,
someone who can be there
as their friend, to talk to,
they do not find one.
They face bullying, harassment and more.
And hundreds of millions
are facing exploitation
and abuse, and violence.
Every seven minutes,
an adolescent boy or girl
somewhere in the world
is killed by an act of violence.
And girls are telling me
that they’re especially worried
about their futures.
And sadly, they’re right, too.
Girls face prejudice and discrimination.
They face early childhood marriage
and they face life-threatening
early pregnancy.
Imagine a population of the United States.
Now double it.
That’s the number of women who
were married before their 18th birthday.
Six hundred and fifty million.
And many were mothers
while they were still children themselves.
One out of every three women
will face physical abuse
or sexual abuse in her lifetime.
So, no wonder girls are worried
about their futures.
These urgent crises may not be a reality
in your life or in your neighborhood.
And perhaps you’ve had opportunities
for a good education
and for marketable skills,
and for getting a job.
And maybe you’ve never faced violence,
or prejudice, or discrimination.
But there are tens of millions
of young people who are not so lucky.
And they are sounding the alarm
for their futures.
And that is why UNICEF
and our many public and private partners
are launching a new global initiative.
Young people themselves have named it.
And it’s called Generation Unlimited
or Gen-U or Gen you.
So, what they’re saying is,
it’s our time, it’s our turn,
it’s our future.
Our goal is very straightforward.
We want every young person
in school, learning, training,
or age-appropriate employment
by the year 2030.
This goal is urgent,
it’s necessary, it’s ambitious.
But we think it’s also achievable.
So we’re calling out
for cutting-edge solutions
and new ideas.
Ideas that will give young people
a fighting chance for their futures.
We don’t know all the answers,
so we’re reaching out to businesses
and governments, and nonprofits,
and academia, and communities,
and innovators for help.
Gen-U is to be an open platform,
where people can come
and share their ideas and solutions
about what works, what does not work,
and importantly, what might work.
So if we can take these ideas
and add a little bit of seed money,
and add some good partners,
and add good political will,
we think they can scale up to reach
thousands and millions of people
around the world.
And with this project,
we’re also going to do something new.
We’re going to co-design
and co-create with young people.
So with Gen-U, they’re going to be
in the driver’s seat,
steering us all along the way.
In Argentina, there’s a program
where we connect students
who are in rural, remote,
hard to reach mountainous communities,
with something they’ve seldom seen:
a secondary school teacher.
So these students come to a classroom,
they’re joined by a community teacher
and they’re connected
to urban schools online.
And there is the secondary school teacher,
who is teaching them
about digital technology
and a good secondary school education,
without them ever having to leave
their own communities.
And in South Africa,
there’s a program called Techno Girls.
And these are girls
from disadvantaged neighborhoods
who are studying the STEM program area:
science, technology, engineering and math.
And they have a chance to job shadow.
This is the way that they then
can see themselves
in jobs that are in engineering,
in science, and maybe
in the space program.
In Bangladesh,
we have partners who are training
tens of thousands of young people
in the trades,
so that they can become
motorcycle repair people,
or mobile phone service people.
But these are a chance to see
their own livelihoods.
And maybe even to have
a business of their own.
And in Vietnam,
there’s a program where
we are pairing young entrepreneurs
with the needs in their own
local communities.
So with this program, a group gathered
and they decided that they would
solve the problem of transportation
for people with disabilities
in their communities.
So with a mentor
and a bit of seed funding,
they’ve now developed a new app
to help the whole community.
And I’ve seen how these programs
can make a difference.
When I was in Lebanon,
I visited a program called Girls Got IT,
or Girls Got It.
And in this program,
girls who have been studying
computer skills and the STEM program
have a chance to work side by side
with young professionals,
so that they can learn firsthand
what it’s like to be an architect,
a designer or a scientist.
And when you see these girls,
smiles on their faces,
the hot lights in their eyes,
they are so excited,
they have hope for the future.
They want to change the world.
And now, with this program
and these mentors,
they’ll be able to do it.
But these ideas and programs
are just a start.
They’ll only reach a fraction
of the young people that we need to reach.
We want to take these ideas
and find ways to scale them up.
To reach more young people
in more communities,
in more places around the world.
And we want to dream big.
Could every school,
everywhere in the world,
no matter how remote or mountainous,
or even if it’s in a refugee camp,
could they be connected to the internet?
Could we have instant translation
for young people,
so that you could get a good education
in your own language,
anywhere in the world?
And would it be possible
that we could connect
the education in your school
with skills that you’re going to need
to get a job in your own community?
So that you actually can move
from school to work.
And more.
Can each one of us help?
In our everyday lives
and in our workplaces,
are there ways that we could
support young people?
Young people are asking us
for apprenticeships,
for job shadowing, for internships.
Could we do this?
Young people are also asking us
for work-study programs,
places where they can learn and earn.
Could we do this and could we
reach out to a community that’s nearby,
that’s less advantaged, and help them?
Young people are also saying
that they want to help other young people.
They want more space and more voice,
so that they can gather
to help each other.
In HIV centers, in refugee camps,
but also to stop online bullying
and early child marriage.
We need ideas, we need
ideas that are big and small,
ideas that are local and global.
This, in the end, is our responsibility.
A massive generation of young people
are about to inherit our world.
It is our duty to leave a legacy
of hope and opportunity
for them but also with them.
Young people are
25 percent of our population.
But they are 100 percent of our future.
And they’re calling out
for a fighting chance
to build a better world.
So their call should be our calling.
The calling of our time.
The time is now, the need is urgent.
And 1.8 billion young people are waiting.
Thank you.
(Applause)