Youth play an integral role in the international community’s effort of achieving sustainable development and gender equality. With about 1.8 billion young people worldwide between the ages of 10 and 24, actively engaging youth in decision-making processes enables cross-generational collaboration to truly implement Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 – inclusive partnerships that collectively seek solutions that benefit our society, the planet, and its inhabitants. Strengthening cross-generational collaboration entails providing mentorship and education of youth, as well as valuing young people’s opinions and creative solutions. More importantly, by further promoting youth participation and engagement, we are creating a momentum of fostering stewardship and sustainable development values amongst the future designers, politicians, engineers, and architects of the world. Investing in the next generation of young leaders will yield positive results – long term and short term – that contribute to the global integration of the SDGs and more robust climate and social justice actions.
Therefore, ICN is happy to accommodate seven selected youths from across Canada each representing their member councils to the CSW67. They attend CSW67 from March 6th – March 11th 2023.