Dozens of youth delegates, representing some 226 million young people from 46 least developed countries (LDCs), took centre stage on Tuesday at a United Nations conference under way in Doha, Qatar, to spotlight a range of development issues affecting them and their countries.
Today, the world counts 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24: the largest such generation in history. Close to 90 per cent of those in this age range live in developing countries, where they make up a large proportion of the population.
However, from the ever-increasing effects of climate change to the ongoing global health and socio-economic fallout of COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of the measures to counteract it, young people worldwide are suffering the repercussions of issues caused by previous generations. In all this, the present and future of young people in LDCs – already highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and have low levels of human assets – are at stake.
Against this backdrop, the Fifth Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) is working to ensure young people are at the heart of the plans to realize Doha Programme of Action (DPoA) by addressing their development needs and empowering them in furthering progress.
