The Power of Youth in Communicating and Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals | IIEA
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The Power of Youth in Communicating and Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals

Author: Stephen Frain

Introduction

In the fourth webinar of the 2021 Development Matters lecture series, which is supported by Irish Aid, the IIEA welcomed Ms Aya Chebbi to speak on intergenerational co-leadership and youth agency with respect to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Aya Chebbi is the former and first African Union (AU) Special Envoy on Youth and is the Chair of the Nala Feminist Collective.

In his introductory remarks to the event, Mr Féilim McLaughlin, Head of the Global Programmes Unit at Irish Aid, welcomed this timely discussion and the emphasis on refocusing efforts to communicate and deliver on the SDGs. He stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic has eroded a lot of recent progress and that often, the most profound affects have been on young people. He concluded that efforts to deliver on the SDGs need to be refocused on an approach with young people at the centre.

 

The Most Innovative Generation: Unpacking the Power of Youth

In her opening remarks, Ms Chebbi asserted: “Obviously, we are the most innovative, the youngest and the coolest generation, and we are qualified to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals”. However, she cautioned that harnessing the power of youth to deliver the SDGs is complex. The realisation of youth agency is, according to Ms Chebbi, at the heart of this struggle and comprises of three key elements: voice; power; and solidarity.

She identified making the voice of young people heard as the first step to youth empowerment in relation to the SDGs. It involves young people taking to the streets and placing themselves at the frontline of social movements. In her view, young people are uniquely placed to make this happen, more so than any generation before them, because they are the first generation who are digital natives. Social media has become a tool for social change, Ms Chebbi argued. Without it, young people would be “condemned” to waiting until adulthood to have their say.

But having a voice alone is not enough, she added, as young people must have the power that goes with it. Power relates to young people having decision-making capabilities in both leadership and governance matters. She dismissed consultations on and token gestures towards the importance of the voice of young people as insufficient. According to Ms Chebbi, leaders must move beyond tokenism, and firmly establish young people’s place in the creation, execution and implementation of sustainable development decisions.

She concluded that while voice and power can achieve the levels of youth agency needed, it is not enough to make the change which needs to happen before the expiry of the SDGs’ deadline of 2030. To achieve this, she argued, young people need solidarity. Solidarity refers to the interconnectedness and collaborative capabilities of young people across borders and boundaries. She acknowledged that solidarity has been tested like never before during the COVID-19 pandemic. She stated, however, that young people’s determination to continue with their advocacy work and to be at the decision-making table, as solutions are sought to the problems caused by the pandemic, is a testament to their resilience and leadership credentials.

 

Intergenerational Co-Leadership and Bridging the Generational Divide

Ms Chebbi was keen to clarify that youth agency and the power of youth more generally does not mean ousting older generations or passing on the torch. The only effective way to make use of youth agency, according to Ms Chebbi is through calls for inter-generational co-leadership creating and reforming the system together now, so that society does not fail the next generation. More concretely, she explained that this means full political participation for young people, as well as the guarantee of equal opportunities for leadership at all decision-making levels in the political, social, cultural, economic and public dimensions of life.

Ms Chebbi recalled her tenure as the AU Special Envoy on Youth, when she curated and championed the concept of intergenerational co-leadership. She explained how during that time she asked heads of state and government to have more youth advisors, to have at least a third or one half of their cabinets filled with young people, to stop the extension of retirement ages, so as to encourage youth into public service, and to allow waivers for young electoral candidates in democratic transitions. All of this, she argued, forms part of the institutionalisation of intergenerational co-leadership.

Nevertheless, Ms Chebbi acknowledged the challenges to intergenerational co-leadership in the context of sustainable development. The field of youth activism can often be a closed and elitist space, she acknowledged. She offered her vision of youth agency as one which aims to be as inclusive as possible and that provides a high-level platform to young people, especially young women, whose views on sustainable development would otherwise never be heard. She added that she believes all young people need to be provided with more opportunities to experience public service and activism during their education.

 

Ready for the Future: Youth as Drivers not Subjects of Development

Ms Chebbi stated that she remains optimistic that young people will have a critical role to play in communicating and delivering on the SDGs during this Decade of Action. She highlighted that she and the Nala Feminist Council secured the incorporation of the key demands of the African Young Women Manifesto, (a paper she helped bring about as AU Special Envoy), into the final outcomes of the July 2021 Generation Equality Forum in Paris. She noted that the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda recently recorded its fifth anniversary and suggested that it should refocus on a youth, peace and development agenda. Young people must, she said, be drivers, not subjects, of international development.

Ms Chebbi concluded her keynote remarks by emphasising the importance of global amplification of the message of young people. She said that Ireland has an important role to play in this respect as well. At government level, at the Generation Equality Forum, a civil society-focused global gathering for gender equality convened by UN Women and hosted by France and Mexico, Ireland supported the work the Forum by launching The Girls’ Fund alongside Plan International, the development and humanitarian organisation for children’s rights and equality for girls, and Purposeful, a feminist hub for girls activism. The Fund will support girl-and youth-led efforts to implement the agreed blueprints of the Forum’s Action Coalitions. At a person-to-person level, Ms Chebbi said that every young person in Ireland and across Europe has the power to be the channel of that amplification and that once unified and amplified, the power of youth will be stronger than ever before.