Building the voice of the future – the ITU youth strategy
More than 40 Youth Task Force members across ITU are actively engaging young people in the work of ITU and are nurturing a community of young leaders – all part of a Youth Strategy that drives forward on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
2022 was a pivotal year for Generation Connect – the overarching initiative of the ITU Youth Strategy that aims to amplify youth voices in the digital development dialogue – mandated through updated WTDC Resolution 76 (Kigali, 2022) and PP Resolution 198 (Bucharest, 2022).
Key activities included: the inaugural Generation Connect Global Summit in Kigali, Rwanda; participation of Generation Connect Youth Envoys in the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Romania [PP-22] in October 2022, involving plenary sessions, intergenerational dialogues and a Youth Engagement Workshop for PP-22 delegates; participation in ITU-D Study Groups Meetings involving two Intergenerational Dialogues on the side-lines of the meetings – “Youth Advancing Meaningful Connectivity” and “Youth Empowerment for Digital Transformation”.
Generation Connect hosted several virtual sessions in external global events in 2022: ECOSOC Youth Forum; the World Food Forum; YOUNGA; Misk Global Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. So far in 2023, Generation Connect has participated and contributed to the LDC5 Youth Track in Doha, Qatar, the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain; and CSW-67 meetings in New York.
In 2022, Generation Connect Digital Learning Certificate was launched through ITU Academy (with 80 young people enrolled); new episodes of the Generation Connect Podcast were released; and ongoing collaboration with the Kofi Annan Changemakers programme was strengthened.
The six Generation Connect Youth Envoy Regional Groups have expanded with 180 Youth envoys in 120 countries. Generation Connect Europe Youth Envoys hosted a GC-EUR Digital Jam and Generation Connect Asia & Pacific Youth Envoys participated in Huawei Asia-Pacific Seeds for the Future Programme in Bangkok in 2022.In March 2023, WSIS Forum 2023 and the Generation Connect in collaboration with the Geneva International Model United Nations (GIMUN, a Geneva-based Student Run NGO Founded in 1999) launched the WSIS Generation Connect Youth Prize. This year’s theme is “Digital Future Through Meaningful Inclusion of Youth”.
