51吃瓜

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and Gentleman,

Good morning.

My name is Fahmida Faiza, a lawyer and youth policy advocate from Bangladesh. As the youth representative of International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO), I take the pleasure to address all of you at this second preparatory Committee Meeting of LDC5. On behalf of youth, I appreciate the co chairs for giving me the floor and allowing our voice to be heard at this important negotiation table. Before I begin my statement, I would like to start with a reminder that , if you could have one takeaway from my speech today, I’d urge you to remember that none of these agendas that are going to be discussed can be meaningfully achieved without direct and enhanced engagement of youths of LDCs. As we approach to the Doha Program of Action, the key priorities and parties are equally important and therefore I’d like to highlight four major issues today: Post Covid reality, Education and youth unemployment, Mental health and climate change

Covid 19 has affected youth worldwide with a vast range of issues which the governments failed to address with adequate and immediate response. While a large number of graduates entered into a covid-stricken shrinking job market, many students lost their part time jobs, couldn’t afford their education anymore and dropped out of their school. Students suffered from the shutdown of their schools and had to cope with the newest technology i. e. The virtual learning environment. Most of the youths from Least Developed Countries had no access to either internet or personal computer. Internet connection runs expensive and even more expensive is a personal electronic device. In many of the LDCs there are cities without proper electricity connection. Therefore, a clear divide between urban and rural youths have been established, whereas marginalised youths, youths with disability and youths from indigenous community have significantly been disadvantaged. Not only education and employability, but also overall wellbeing of youth have been at stake. A research done by the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus and Harvard Medical School Covid 19 student response team identified variety of issues with accessible, affordable, quality mental health care. Evidently, the governments have not particularly provided special support to ensure mental health care for the youth which was essential during such unprecedented and unpredictable time. In Bangladesh, for example, last year there were 70% more death from suicide than covid-19, it is time we need to address the silent pandemic. Mental health of the youth population across LDCs is at stake. Among the 46 LDCs, 12 are from Asia Pacific and 33 from Africa where youths combine the highest number in population. So, it is the youths from LDC countries who can make the most impactful differences if engaged through the right processes. As we approach the next decade to attain SDGs, Youth 2030 agenda has become an important achievable to focus on equally and together with the UN Youth Envoy’s office ICMYO is working at the High Level Steering Committee for achieving the priorities set out in the UN Youth Strategy. For the LDC5 platform, we believe a meaningful youth declaration would work as a soundboard to echo the youth concerns. So I recommend to include diverse and underrepresented youths from LDCs in this process. 

There’s a common question we all got asked in our childhood, that is, what do you want to be when you grow up?  I think the approach of that question is to look forward to a better future, more specifically, what do we, as youths of today bring for tomorrow? But ladies and gentleman, I am not here to talk about tomorrow anymore, the action has to begin right here right now. As youths we are inheriting problems like climate change our ancestors have contributed to . Our duty is to rectify those mistakes, we are the problem solvers, it’s not about footprint to follow, it’s now about changing the narratives and wring our own stories. It’s not about waiting to grow up and then make the difference, it’s not about waiting for the right time because the right time is now. 

Thank you!