{"id":213211,"date":"2022-01-10T23:35:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T21:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/keep-speaking-out-un-chief-urges-in-message-to-world-youth-forum?lang=en"},"modified":"2022-01-10T23:35:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T21:35:54","slug":"keep-speaking-out-un-chief-urges-in-message-to-world-youth-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/keep-speaking-out-un-chief-urges-in-message-to-world-youth-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Keep speaking out&#8217;, UN chief urges in message to World Youth Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/d9bcdab060ca9b6\/600\/418\" alt=\"United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Although everyone has been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on young people has been &ldquo;especially heartbreaking&rdquo;, UN Secretary-General Ant&oacute;nio Guterres said on Monday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>In a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sg\/en\/node\/261376\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video messag<\/a>e to the World Youth Forum in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, he urged participants to help shape a better world after the crisis, in line with the conference&rsquo;s theme.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Building a better future starts today. &nbsp;So, to the young people attending this forum, keep speaking out. Keep identifying the solutions and actions we need to recover.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary-General reeled off some of the devastating impacts&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">COVID-19<\/a>&nbsp;has dealt the world&rsquo;s youth. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Calling for change&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More than 1.6 billion have had their education disrupted, while unemployment in their ranks has grown. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Young people have also seen access to services such as health care and counselling dwindle, during a challenging period for mental health.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, they have stepped up.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In the streets, and online, they&rsquo;re calling for change &mdash; demanding equality, peace, justice and action on the climate crisis,&rdquo;&nbsp;said the Secretary-General.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re supporting one another &#8211; in their neighbourhoods and on social media. And through events like this one, they&rsquo;re providing ideas and solutions on how communities can rebuild, and emerge stronger from the pandemic.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Message to leaders&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The forum runs through Thursday and is being held under the theme of&nbsp;<em>Back Together: The World After COVID-19<\/em>. &nbsp;The UN chief said it is a reminder that there is no time to lose.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Having admonished young people to continue speaking out, the Secretary-General also delivered a message to leaders and policy makers in attendance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As you look to recovery, look to young people&rdquo;, he advised. &nbsp;&ldquo;Young people are an incredible source of ideas and innovative solutions. &nbsp;Their needs must come first in policy and investment discussions.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Guterres said he looks forward to hearing the results of the forum, and to working with participants to shape a better future, beyond the pandemic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Peace, Development, Creativity&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Discussions at the World Youth Forum revolve around three tracks: Peace, Development and Creativity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It was first held in Sharm el Sheikh in November 2017, according to the official website.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The initiative was developed by a group of young Egyptians at the National Youth Conference that April, who proposed the idea of holding a dialogue with counterparts around the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since then, three sessions have been held, with the last taking place in 2019.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><i>Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG).<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"well well-sm\"><b>Media files<\/b><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/4c5bea0be73cd28\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/4c5bea0be73cd28\" alt=\"United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)\" style=\"max-width:500px\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/download\/4c5bea0be73cd28\">Download logo<\/a><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/\">Source: Africa Newsroom &#8211; APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although everyone has been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on young people has been &ldquo;especially heartbreaking&rdquo;, UN Secretary-General Ant&oacute;nio Guterres said on Monday.&nbsp; In a&nbsp;video message to the World Youth Forum in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, he urged participants to help shape a better world after the crisis, in line with the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-213211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/keep-speaking-out-un-chief-urges-in-message-to-world-youth-forum.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}