UN Youth Delegates’ Speech at the 57th Commission for Social Development (UN)

The UN Youth Delegates of Romania deliver a speech at the ECOSOC Commision for Social Development (UN)

Aurelian Mohan:

The Priority Theme of the 2019 Session (of the Commission for Social Development) is of paramount importance not only for the leaders of all Member States, but also for each and every youth residing in those countries. In extenso, worldwide governments are struggling to tackle discrimination, marginalization of various social groups, high income inequality, persistent unemployment, and lack of equal access to basic services, resources, and opportunities. The Romanian government is no exception. In our official capacity as UN Youth Delegates, my colleague and I met and discussed with young people from a myriad of social and economic backgrounds; in this context, we’ve discovered that although advancements we’re made in multiple areas, a high proportion of young Romanians still face the risk of social exclusion and poverty, material deprivation is still present in certain regions, and opportunities for youth are scarce.  Moreover, young people need appropriate representation in the policymaking process, higher financial support for their endeavours, and amenities capable to foster accessibility for youth with disabilities.

From our position, we strive to disseminate youth-related strategies, studies, reports, and legal provisions through two online youth platforms we are currently developing, to persuade local leaders to create youth councils and to join the World Urban Youth Councils Network of UN-Habitat, to connect various stakeholders with the aim of nurturing the progress of young people, and to create mechanisms that can increase the civic engagement of the aforementioned group. Nevertheless, much more is needed in order to achieve sustainable development; exempli gratia, only the judicious spending of public resources coupled with substantial social protection programs, policies aimed at increasing the level of social inclusion pertaining to the young people neither in employment nor in education and training, a wide range of employment opportunities, and the focus of political leaders on youth-related issues can fulfill the pledge of “leaving no one behind” (LNOB).

Andrada Baba:

First, I am talking in the capacity of a youth representative, speaking for the youth from Romania and second, I am a young person myself struggling to find my path. We are always wondering where to start to achieve social and economic development, understanding that all elements are interconnected and each one of them needs to be improved in order to have a performant society.

The youth is a nation’s future and we keep talking about it, but it is insufficient unless we are involved in building the own future. Thriving to build a career and succeeding in life are always top subjects among youth though, there are various challenges that we sometimes can’t overcome. What we seek in a job is more than making a living, is meaning. To find meaning in work, this is what keeps us going and unfortunately in the first years of activity we are neither prepared for such a responsibility, as it requests skills that we rarely master in school and it is binding to atone them individually in order to become competitive. We should be allowed to make mistakes and eventually to exceed our potential.

Having so many opportunities many young people are leaving to study and work abroad, and this is great if they have the chance to get a meaningful education and significant experience, but are we ready to welcome them back? How are we using the youth potential to develop? Like in an incubator, youth should be protected and sustained to achieve work maturity in order to be able to give back.

To assure balance, the change must start as well from the top as from the grassroots in the hope that they will meet. But there are so many inequalities that even if one of the sides is stretching a hand, there are big chances that it won’t be cached from the other side, especially for those who hide hard life stories behind the bright smiles. The youth is ready to get involved but it needs to know that there is a safety net in order to dare to fly.

About the 57th Commission for Social Development (UN)

The 57th session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD57) addressed the following priority theme: ‘Addressing inequalities and challenges to social inclusion through fiscal, wage and social protection policies’. The Commission acts as the advisory body responsible for the social development pillar of global development (Source: http://sdg.iisd.org/events/57th-session-of-the-commission-for-social-development/).