The UN Headquarters recently hosted the Assisting Youth Participation: Supporting Young Talents round table discussion. The event was initiated and chaired by Belarus, with support from Australia, Russia and Turkey. The head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s Main Department for Multilateral Diplomacy, Yuri Ambrazevich, was deputy head of the Belarusian delegation at the ECOSOC main session. He presented Belarus’ experience and achievements regarding the state support of talented youngsters and noted that this forms the foundation of a system of working with young Belarusians. He called upon UN organisations to tackle youth issues more actively, to encourage youngsters in helping solve global issues of sustainable development.
Representatives of UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, the UNDP and the Alliance of Civilisation took part, with representatives from all over the world sharing experience of youth issues. Belarus’ proposal to strengthen co-operation and co-ordination of such efforts (by states and UN agencies) was agreed.
Participants came to the conclusion that joint efforts by member states and UN agencies in supporting talented youngsters need to be extended.
This is to be reflected in a youth policy resolution presented at the UN General Assembly in 2013, as well as on the UN development agenda for the period after 2015.
