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The world today is home to 1.9 billion young people. They are a driving force for positive societal change, leading the way through social mobilization, pushing for climate action, seeking racial justice, promoting gender equality, educating their communities, mobilizing their peers, demanding dignity for all, and driving innovative solutions to current global challenges.

Yet at the same time, young people continue to be disproportionately affected by current global crises, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, rising inequality, discrimination, ongoing conflicts, and more. Young people experience these challenges through an intersectional lens and, hence, intersectionality is at the heart of young people's solutions.

In this spirit, the ¡°Torchbearers for the SDGs: Meaningful Youth Engagement and the 2030 Agenda¡± segment of the SDG Mobilization Day will focus on providing space for young people to expand on proposals related to the ¡°how¡± of SDG implementation, emphasizing that meaningful youth engagement is a key enabler and catalyst when it comes to getting the world back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The segment will culminate a series of youth consultations undertaken in 2023 to hear from young people on their ambitions, expectations, ideas and concerns leading up to the SDG Summit 2023. The segment will launch a ¡°Torchbearers for the SDGs¡± outcome document summarizing consultation findings, and present a Global Youth Position Paper for the SDG Summit. These documents will together highlight young people¡¯s perspectives and recommendations on gaps and opportunities as it relates to their engagement as full-fledged partners in realizing the SDGs.

Intergenerational and multi-stakeholder dialogues will be at the core of the segment¡¯s programme, which will bring together youth, UN leadership, Member State representatives, civil society representatives, and more.

The segment will specifically focus on opportunities to:

• Strengthen meaningful youth engagement in policymaking and decision-making processes by building on the Secretary-General's Policy Brief on Meaningful Youth Engagement in Policymaking and Decision-Making Processes , and capturing young people¡¯s perspectives and recommendations on gaps and opportunities for them to engage as full-fledged partners in SDG implementation, follow-up and review

• Spotlight young people¡¯s key contributions to SDG implementation, recognizing their role as the ¡°torchbearers of sustainable development to future generations¡± as highlighted in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

OBJECTIVES

• Highlight the importance of strengthening meaningful youth engagement in policymaking and decision-making processes at all levels, particularly the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including by sharing outcomes of the ¡°Torchbearers for the SDGs¡± global youth consultations and the Global Youth Position Paper for the SDG Summit

• Spotlight youth as a driving force for positive societal change and their key contributions to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

• Build a youth-led, intergenerational and multistakeholder space for dialogue and active engagement during the SDG Mobilization Day ahead of the SDG Summit 2023

You can access the live recording of this event on UN Web TV .

Click here for more information on the global youth consultations held in the lead up to the SDG Summit

For additional information, please contact: youthenvoy@un.org.

For further information on the SDG Action Weekend, please visit our website: /en/conferences/SDGSummit2023/SDG-Action-Weekend .