The world today comprises of a great population of the youth. Many have done a lot to help with making changes for the development of their countries, other times they(youth) are the ones who are involved in different circumstances
Today, the world marks the celebrations of the International Youth Day. To mark its celebration, this year’s theme is “Youth Engagement for Global Action.”
According to the United Nations(UN),this seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of the young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching the national and multilateral institutions and processes. It also seeks to draw lessons on how the youth representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.
As regards the response to Covid-19, all segments of the population have been affected, with the youth people playing a key role in the management of the outbreak and the recovery, from the outbreak of Covid-19.
However, not much is known on how the disease affects young people, but the different governments have a mandate to ensure that their services meet the needs of the young people, as in the World Program of Action for Youth (WPAY). It is therefore very important to ensure the voices of the youth are heard, alongside the ones of the other people in the community like the patients, elderly in the response to the outbreak of Covid-19.
According to WPAY, one of the key elements to their work is that, there is need to build up the capacity of youth to be able to make their own decisions on health and to take responsibility for their health.
Therefore, government as well a youth organizations and community groups have to play a very big role to ensure that trustworthy public health information is disseminated to the public, so as to avoid the issue of misinformation. This is because many young people are highly engaged in the consumption of information online. With this, videos or any information that is or public consumption are to be effective and help to explain what is being said.
The world over has also benefited from the different works of the young people, especially during this current era in which everything is being connected to technology. Many new innovations are being seen coming into place, so as to help health wise and also in other areas of interest. We have seen machines being developed during the Covid-19 pandemic to help doctors to interact with their patients without physically getting in touch with them, so as to prevent the spread of the deadly corona virus.
Other young people have come up with voluntary organizations that are going in to help the needy persons, elderly, the sick among other people. For many of these organizations, stuff like food, clothing and other necessary equipment are being handed over those in need, especially during this outbreak of Covid-19.
Furthermore, there are three interconnected streams that this year’s celebrations are to be put on the spotlight, these are:
1. Engagement at the local/community level.
2. Engagement at the national level (formation of laws, policies and their implementation)
3. Engagement at the global level
The United Nation has created a social media campaign that is to run throughout this month of August, to celebrate young people. This is meant to help spread the word and start up a conversation that surrounds youth engagement for global action. Let us join the campaign that is under the hashtag, #31DaysOfYOUth.
This year, the commemoration of the day will be in form of a podcast discussion, according to the UN. It is to be hosted by youth for the youth, together with independently organized commemorations around the world, that recognize the importance of youth participation in political, economic and social life and processes.
FLASHBACK
The General Assembly, in 1999 endorsed the recommendation that was made by the World Conference of Minsters Responsible for Youth (Lisbon,8-12 August 1998) that 12 August is to be declared the International Youth Day.
