UN to PH: Use the youth to effect change, end poverty
The United Nations (UN) has urged the Philippines to take advantage of its young population to effect change and end poverty.
Titon Mitra, Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said this before more than 19,000 young
people during the recent Global Youth Summit held in the country.
“There are 1.4 billion people 10 to 24 years old in the world and 87 percent of the young people are in developing countries. Seven hundred million are in the Asia Pacific region and the Philippines has the third youngest people in the region. Thirty percent of Filipinos are under 15 and the median age is 26. That’s a lot of young people that can make the difference and I know most of you want to make a difference,” Mitra said.
He pointed out that the youth has a very important role in effecting change because the world has only 10 years left to implement the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by 193 countries, including the Philippines, during the UN General Assembly in September 2015.
The 17 SDGs were agreed upon to implement programs on the whole sustainability agenda – poverty, human development, the environment, and social justice – for the transformation of humanity and the planet by year 2030.
“We set ourselves 15 years and we only have 10 years. The clock is ticking and we have to change the footprint we have on this earth. Our UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had said, ‘we will be the first generation to end poverty and we will also be the last generation to live with the worst impacts of climate change’ and if we don’t succeed, the future generations will judge us very harshly. So the message is really simple: If we continue on as business as usual, we are going to be in deep, deep trouble. It’s not an option,” Mitra said.
The Global Youth Summit 2018 is the largest gathering of youth leaders for SDGs.
Royston Cabunag, Director of the SM Cares Program for Children and Youth, said the immense attendance at the Summit is a testament to the commitment of today’s youth to bring about change in every aspect of their lives.
“This shows their passion and commitment to make a difference and all we have to do is harness that power to its fullest potential,” Cabunag said.
Jinsoo Kim, Regional Representative of GPF Asia Pacific, pointed out that the Global Youth Summit aims to bring about moral and innovative leadership through engagement, building of leadership skills and exposure to real world experiences that inspire them to bring about positive impact.
Aside from Mitra, Christopher Morris, NGO and Civil Society Head of the Asian Development Bank; Glo Ann Guevarra, Knowledge Management Specialist of the ADB; Gundo Weiler, World Health Organization (WHO) Specialist, Professor Richard Heydarian and Joey Concepcion, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Founder of "Go Negosyo" also gave their inspirational talks during the event.
Other resource persons on the topic of gender equality include Pacita Juan of Coffee Crusader and an advocate for Women Empowerment, and Farah Ghodsinia, Founder of Children of Mindanao.
Weiler, for his part, said today’s youth should make lifestyle changes in order to reverse the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCD) like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, and chronic respiratory diseases.