The Generation Connect Global Youth Summit was held on 2 – 4 June 2022, at the Intare Conference Arena, in Kigali, Rwanda. It was in a hybrid format, with physical participation, as well as virtual youth engagement.
The Summit brought together young leaders, entrepreneurs, social change-makers, engineers, policy specialists, students, and others. Business leaders, influential decision makers, and community advocates also joined the event.
The Summit addressed the digital divide and related topics, including digital skills, gender, climate change, online safety, the future of work, entrepreneurship, digital dependencies, and more. A “Call to Action” document was issued and promoted widely in front of world leaders.
HUBS
Over 70 hubs from 53 countries joined the Summit. Over 4800 young people followed the Summit from these hubs
SOCIAL MEDIA
Use the hashtag #GenerationConnect on all digital platforms!
LIVESTREAM
English captioning of the Summit can be found here (TIES protected)
The ‘Call to Action’ builds on a two-year consultation process since 2020 – regional discussions and the resulting six regional Youth Declarations, global webinars with the Generation Connect community and a four-week online global consultation open to all youth.
The consultations brought together students, young professionals, digital entrepreneurs and youth networks from around the world to co-create the draft Call to Action. The aim of the process was to enhance youth engagement in building an inclusive, sustainable digital future for all through participation in government, ITU and the wider UN system.
2022 Generation Connect Youth Call to Action
Report on the consultation and co-creation process of the Youth Call to Action ‘My digital future’
Among all the amazing activities of the Summit, the HackingDigitalSkills4Jobs Hackathon was not to be missed. During the first two days, the teams hacked their ideas and solutions to help tackle the digital capacity challenges faced by young people when preparing for future employment. Then, on June 4, they Pitched to Win in front of the audience, and a high-level panel of judges. It was a great opportunity to learn and discuss about how technology can be leveraged to tackle the problems that today’s youth face!
The Youth Summit was co-designed with young people from ITU’s Generation Connect Youth network, including students with a passion for digital solutions, social change-makers, young entrepreneurs, promising young engineers and policy specialists from government, business and universities.