African Youth Delegates and Representatives gather to increase representation at the UN

• The African UN Youth Delegate and Representative Program AUNYD is not an official UN program. The UN Youth Delegate Program is driven and owned by UN Member States. Official Youth Delegates are always exclusively selected by UN Member States.  The civil society youth representatives we select at the AUNYD have a better chance to become national UN Youth Delegates through our training and support

Due to the situation in Sudan, the Sudanese representatives and partners could not attend the training physically. However, digital measures were taken to ensure their involvement, including a live stream of the entire training and recorded audio summaries at the end of each day.

During the training program for the UN Youth Delegates and Representatives, the main focus was on developing the mandates for the work as a delegate or representative. The collaborative effort resulted in the selection of two themes for the 2023 term: "Strengthening Effective Youth Participation at the UN" and "Addressing Youth Unemployment in Africa These topics were chosen due to concrete processes at the UN that can be followed up on to increase impact. The mandates consist of an overview of publications in the two areas, demands that can be fed into relevant processes, entry points, and relevant actors. In parallel, the UN associations and the Kenyan SDG Forum participated in a workshop to establish a future roadmap to facilitate a UN Youth Delegates and Representatives program in the upcoming years. 

The UN Associations program aimed to strengthen the capacities of UNAs, develop a perspective for their development in the next 5 years, and develop regional cooperation. A concrete project idea was developed and will be implemented to strengthen project management and fundraising skills. The mandates will now be fed back to local youth and central actors at the international level for further discussions.
The next training will take place from May 24-28 in Tanzania. We congratulate our Youth Delegates and Representative on their successful completion of the whole week of training. We are impressed by their dedication, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn and collaborate. We believe that their efforts will contribute to the empowerment and representation of the youth of  African countries at the international stage. We wish them all the best as they continue their journey towards the UN General Assembly, and we look forward to seeing the impact they will make in their communities and beyond.