International Youth Day 2016
Date:
The theme for this year’s International Youth Day on 12 August, “The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production”, focuses on the leadership of youth in ending poverty and achieving sustainable development. Investing in young women’s leadership is a key aspect of UN Women’s work with youth around the world. It pays the highest dividends and translates into higher productivity at all levels. Promoting young women’s innovation and leadership in ensuring sustainability is critical for fulfilling the vision of Planet 50-50 by 2030.
Read UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's statement for International Youth Day.
Snapshots of our work
“I sold my gold earrings to pay for the first year of university in Phnom Penh...”
Sinet Seap, 31, is a youth activist from Kandal Province, Cambodia. She has worked with the civil society organization Youth Resource Development Programme and UN Women Cambodia on engaging youth, particularly young women. Read more »
Empowering young women entrepreneurs in Tanzania
Young women entrepreneurs in Tanzania gain skills in entrepreneurship, marketing accounting and cross-border trade through the UN Joint Programme on Youth Employment. Their incomes have increased, along with their confidence, and they are now generating employment opportunities for other youth.
Stopping bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan
A programme from the National Federation of Female Communities of Kyrgyzstan, supported by a grant from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, has introduced the first-ever curriculum on gender-based violence in Kyrgyz language in schools in rural Kyrgyzstan.
All around the world, youth are working hand in hand for #genderequality & a #Planet5050. RT if you are too! pic.twitter.com/Zm2IGc654F
— UN Women (@UN_Women) July 15, 2016
Join HerStory edit-a-thons
Wikipedia compiles what represents close to the sum of all human knowledge, and as an effort to ensure women are recognized as part of that sum, on the occasion of the International Youth Day, Empower Women is pleased to announce the launch of the HerStory initiative. Empower Women by UN Women, Wikimedia Foundation, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, the UN Inter-agency Network on Youth Development's Working Group on Youth and Gender Equality, and hundreds of volunteer champions are working on enhancing the content on Wikipedia related to women and gender equality to raise awareness, close the gender knowledge gap, and start changing and editing the future. Join HerStory edit-a-thons to contribute, promote and celebrate women of the world. Make sure you going to be an agent of this ‘herstorical’ change. For more information, check the initiative website or reserve your spot now.
More stories
Football camps in Jordan plant seeds of friendship and cohesion
A project by UN Women organized football camps for adolescent girls, where Jordanian and Syrian refugee girls in Jordan built friendships and social cohesion.
From where I stand: Micaele Fernandes
Micaele Fernandes, 16, a handball player from Rio de Janeiro, speaks about learning confidence, leadership and teamwork through sport.
From where I stand: Yoeurn Reaksa
After moving from a rural district in Cambodia to Phnom Penh to work in a factory, Yoeurn Reaksa, 20, began working with CARE Cambodia to address sexual harassment and gender-based violence in the workplace.
Hacking to combat sexual harassment in Philippines
As part of UN Women’s Safe Cities Global Flagship Programme Initiative, the Metro Manila Programme held the first-ever hackathon in May 2016, to seek mobile technology solutions to sexual harassment and violence against women and girls in public spaces.
From where I stand: Sita Shrestha
Sita Shrestha, 20, who helped construct a tap and organize villagers to turn a natural water source into a public space they could share in Nepal.
From where I stand: Desirée Akpa Akpro Loyou
Desirée Akpa Akpro Loyou, 37, is a social worker and Deputy Commissioner General responsible for training, for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) in Côte d'Ivoire who works to teach Girl Guides how to deliver the non-formal education curriculum, Voices against violence.
Fostering a new, empowered generation
Youth around the world work on projects to help women in their communities achieve their full potential.
Girls and young women gain ground in male-dominated fields
With support from UN Women's Fund for Gender Equality, young women around the world are entering non-traditional economic and political spheres, and redefining leadership on their own terms.
From complex coding in Kigali to graduation gowns in Pittsburgh
Thanks to a UN Women-sponsored scholarship programme, two young African women fulfil their dreams of completing a Master’s in information security at Carnegie Mellon University