Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth
| Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth | |
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| Formation | January 17 of 2013 |
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| Type | Office |
| Legal status | Active |
| Headquarters | New York City, United States |
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Head
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Jayathma Wickramanayake |
| Website | https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/ |
The Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth serves as a global advocate for addressing the needs and rights of young people, as well as for bringing the United Nations closer to them. The Envoy's Office is part of the United Nations Secretariat and supports multi-stakeholder partnerships related to the United Nations system-wide action plan on youth and to youth volunteer initiatives. The office also promotes the empowerment and foster the leadership of youth at the national, regional, and global levels, including through exploring and encourages mechanisms for young people’s participation in the work of the United Nations and in political and economic processes with a special focus on the most marginalized and vulnerable youth.
The United Nations Secretary-General identified working with and for young people as one of the Organization's top priorities . Ahmad Alhendawi was appointed the first-ever Envoy on Youth, and served in this position from 2013 until 2017. During his tenure, he tasked the UN Volunteer program to establish a Youth Volunteer Programme and the UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD) to develop a System-Wide Action Plan on Youth. On 20 June 2017, Jayathma Wickramanayake Dias took up the position of Envoy on Youth.
The Envoy on Youth is mandated with the task of bringing the voices of young people to the United Nations System. Moreover, the Envoy on Youth also works with different UN agencies, governments, civil society, academia and media stakeholders towards enhancing, empowering and strengthening the position of young people within and outside of the United Nations system. The role of the Envoy on Youth is also described by the UN Secretary-General as a “harmoniser between all UN agencies” bringing them together to explore cooperation opportunities for working with and for young people.
The work-plan of the Office of the Secretary General's Envoy on Youth responds to the UN Secretary-General’s Five-year Action Agenda, and is guided by the World Programme of Action for Youth. It outlines 4 priority areas; Participation, Advocacy, Partnerships and Harmonisation. In addition, the focus of the Envoy's office is placed on employment and civic engagement while ensuring the integration of a gender perspective across all work areas. In parallel, the Envoy's office supports the Education First Initiative and the planned activities in relation to youth and education.
Under each priority area of the work plan, the Office of the Secretary General's Envoy on Youth has outlined a set of goals and actions.
Firstly in relation to the Participation priority, the main goal is to increase youth accessibility to the UN through promoting structured mechanisms. To this end the office is promoting the establishment of the UN Panel on Youth. It is supporting the first ever Regional Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) Youth Forums, and the Global ECOSOC Youth Forum. In addition, the Envoy works on encouraging the Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams to establish National Youth Advisory Groups to engage youth in the preparation of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), and regularly partners with the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth. The Office of the Secretary General's Envoy on Youth encourages more governments to participate in the UN Youth Delegate Programme. The Office of the Secretary General's Envoy on Youth also provides support for the new United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Youth modality. Further, the Office of the Secretary General's Envoy on Youth works on creating and maintaining active channels of communication between youth-led organisations and the United Nations, as well as to enhance youth access to information related to the United Nations’ work on youth.
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