At the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Restless Development launched a Global Consensus Statement on Youth-Led Accountability.
The consensus has been developed by a broad coalition with over 35 civil society organizations and a Youth Reference Group.
Why does ICPD matter?
The ICPD presented an important opportunity to inspire action, and to mobilize political will and the financial commitments urgently needed to implement the ICPD Programme of Action that was adopted in 1994, and to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets by 2030.
What does the consensus say?
The statement calls for funding and support for youth-led and youth-initiated mechanisms to hold decision makers to account for commitments first adopted in 1994 in Nairobi. In practice, this means we are looking for all manner of organisations, including UN agencies, civil society organisations, funders and governments, to make concrete commitments to include young people in every stage of programme delivery and development, and strengthen young people’s ability to make sure programmes are accountable to the people they serve.
The consensus calls on leaders at ICPD to build open and independent platforms free from prejudice, as well as increase access to comprehensive, high-quality, and age-and-gender-disaggregated data on social development indicators at country, regional and global levels.
The world cannot end preventable maternal deaths, gender-based violence, child marriage and female genital mutilation, or adress any other pressing issues without meaningful engagement with young people and youth civil society.
What can you do?
If you believe, like we do, that young people’s voices should be at the forefront of development you can help us by amplifying our voice. Change only happens when we demand it and hold our leaders accountable.
Below you can find a tweet that you can send to organisations and individuals that you think may be relevant (remember to tag them) to inform them of our statement and gain their support, or funding to ensure there are youth-led and youth-initiated mechanisms to hold decision makers to account for their commitments made in Nairobi.
“We, young people, want to work with you to make the promises of the ICPD and SDGs a reality and are calling on you to commit to support #youthledaccountability.
