By William Maduok
South Sudan UN youth fellows have begun preparations for participation at the anticipated September 2024 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Eighteen fellows are receiving a five-day capacity training for the South Sudan UN Youth Delegate’s participation, where two fellows will present the youth’s grievances to the UNGA for the second time in history.
In 2023, the delegates—male and female—took the impending unemployment issue to the global stage as a conflict-induced factor influencing security dynamics in the African nascent country.
“Last year (2023), there was rampant unemployment among the youth, and this year they will also identify another burning issue to be presented to the general assembly,” said Joseph Kenyi, Programme Coordinator of Africa UN Youth Delegates for South Sudan.
This is the African UN Youth Delegate Project that allows young people from Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and South Sudan to discuss various challenges and identify the most pressing ones that two representatives will present to world leaders for solutions.
“It’s a great opportunity for South Sudan to be part of the global participation of young people. This is the second time, and I hope this should continue when other partners become interested in this programme,” Kenyi said.
The programme aims to increase representation of the youth of the Global South at the United Nations by encouraging interested and highly motivated young people who want to be UN Youth Delegates and UN Youth Fellows to represent the interests of the youth at both the national and international level.
Further, this also aims to build up UN associations in all participating countries and gives young people the chance to become UN Youth Fellows and engage with the work of the United Nations on the ground.
It supports, guides, and dispatches a new generation of UN Youth Delegates from the global south.