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
um
um
um
um
uh
um
anymore
um
um
um
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
[Music]
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
[Music]
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
[Music]
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
[Music]
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
[Music]
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