‘Courage and boldness’: Young voices lead change at UN meeting

Doha, Qatar – Representatives of the world’s poorest nations are meeting for a five-day conference to determine how to achieve crucial development goals, from food security to access to clean energy by 2030.

But between business suits and dry speeches, young delegates emerged to make sure their views were also part of the debate.

“All high-level decisions affect us, so it’s important to shape the narrative and make sure our voice is well represented,” Reekelitsoe Molapo told Al Jazeera.

Molapo, 28, from the southern African kingdom of Lesotho, is one of 92 young delegates invited to participate in the United Nations Conference on least developed countries (WFP).

There are 46 LDCs and the summit is usually held every 10 years. But due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was postponed twice. This was the fifth summit of its kind, but the first where a series of round tables, forums and meetings were specifically designed for young participants to empower them to promote progress.

About 60 percent of the population in less developed countries is under the age of 25, according to UN data. The number of people aged 15-24 is projected to rise to 336 million by 2050.

Young people are the most exposed to poverty and social exclusion, which prevents them from accessing education and job opportunities. UN chief Antonio Guterres spoke at the summit opening ceremony of “vicious circles” that prevent the poorest countries from boosting their economies and improving education.

However, the young delegates shared their stories of resistance and resilience.

“I am not here today to point out how difficult the situation is, but to stress the courage and audacity of the LDCs,” said Molapo, who was selected for her social engagement in Lesotho.

In 2017, the young activist co-founded Conservation Music Lesotho, an organization that uses music to promote messages related to climate change among the children of his country.

By composing, explaining and producing songs, the group has so far reached more than 5,000 students in rural areas of the country. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho has about a third of its 2.1 million people living on less than $1.90 a day.

“People may not be able to be aware of climate change as a concept so this is a way to make the science much more relatable,” Molapo said.

Climate change is among the most resonant topics in youth roundtables, and for good reason. People in LDCs are disproportionately affected by the world’s challenges, including global warming, which has hit the poorest nations hardest.

Over the past 50 years, nearly 70% of global deaths from weather-related disasters have occurred in LDCs, according to research shows.

Htay Aung, 21, from Myanmar’s northern Shan state, was five years old when his parents left him in a Buddhist monastery because they could not afford his education. He established a group of 15 volunteers, each donating $0.5 per week to help the children ages 2 to 10 who had stayed at the monastery.

At 14 she met a foreigner, a tourist who was cycling across the country who taught her a few words of English. That was a window to the outside world and a life trigger, he said. After that, he approached passing tourists to learn English, including an Israeli couple who were so impressed by his determination that they helped him apply to a school in Israel.

Htay Aung has lived for the last three years in Tel Aviv, where she started a program to teach English online to children in Myanmar. During the LDC Conference, she expanded her network by linking up with delegates from Nepal to Somalia on how to scale up each other’s projects.

“It is very important for us to be here because we work on the ground, we know what our problems are… The education we receive is very different from that of our elders,” he said, noting the importance of internet access. and social networks

Along with climate change, digital inclusion was another topic of great concern among the young delegates. In less developed countries, around two thirds of the population remains disconnected due to a lack of infrastructure, affordability and skills.

A study by the International Telecommunication Union published on Sunday said the gap between LDCs and the rest of the world of people using the Internet increased from 27 percentage points in 2011 to 30 percentage points in 2022.

“Our agenda is to let the politicians know about us,” said Khanal Prajes, 22, from Nepal.

She works for The Movers, an organization that expands children’s access to education. “In Nepal, the main concern is building roads, but human development is not a priority at all.”

Access to education in LDCs remains a critical problem. the ONU Dear All The average child in these nations is expected to attend 2.8 fewer years of school compared to the world average. There is an even larger gap of 6.4 years compared to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development states.

“I want to broaden my work and support government policies to include children’s issues in general policy,” Prajes said.

The UN summit in Qatar proved positive for networking, he added. “You have to come from outside to be seen from the inside.”