YOUNG NEGOTIATORS AT THE UNITED NATIONS TABLES: FINALLY HAPPENING!
Youth empowerment. Youth engagement. Youth voices. Everyone is talking about it. But what about integrating and valuing young experts and professionals via official avenues of engagement: skilled young negotiators in REAL terms at REAL decision-making tables with REAL mandates? This is the goal of The Youth Negotiators Academy (YNA), and they are making it a reality.
"Young people must be at the table – as designers of their own future, not as recipients of decisions of elders who have, let’s be honest, failed them in so many key respects."
António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations
FRAMING THE PROBLEMS
Half of the world’s population is under age 35, yet there is little representation of youth in official negotiations at the United Nations.
Initiatives exist within the UN scope of work to engage young people. While these initiatives are excellent to meaningfully engage youth, none of them is tailored to involve young people in decision-making processes as negotiators and equip them with the skills, experience, and networks necessary to negotiate, design, and implement multilateral environmental agreements.
Meaningful involvement requires youth to engage as negotiators and active agents within institutionalized decision-making frameworks. Further barriers involve limited access by some regions, lack of funds, and the fragmented nature of engagement.
SOLUTIONS CREATED BY AND FOR YOUTH
These problems have been noticed but solutions sorely missing over decades. What to do? In steps a dynamic group to form an initiative, created by four young women from Asia and Europe (including two Real Food Systems youth ambassadors!), co-founding the Youth Negotiators Academy (YNA) . They have extensive and diverse experiences in UN negotiations as negotiators, activists and advisors, and environmental leaders.
The YNA launched in 2022, with its first flagship initiative, the Climate Youth Negotiator Programme (CYNP). The program has witnessed significant growth and impact, becoming a vital platform fostering the development of young negotiators within the UNFCCC (climate) processes.
In 2022 YNA engaged 26 countries, equipping 60 young negotiators with essential skills at the UNFCCC COP27. The program expanded its reach in 2023, involving 54 countries and training 170 young negotiators. Their amplified presence at COP28, with 123 negotiators present, underscored the program's efficacy in cultivating young climate negotiators. The CYNP is continuing in 2024 in the lead-up to COP29.
Further, the group is developing a 2024 training program for UNCCD (Convention to Combat Desertification) and its COPs: the Land Youth Negotiator Programme (LYNP) will replicate the successful structure of CYNP within UNFCCC from the past 2 years.
To take part, member states sign an agreement with YNA to confirm that a young person is selected fairly according to the YNA selection guidelines and will have a meaningful, dedicated role as active negotiator in their country’s delegation.
We are so proud of these pioneers! We welcome you to contact them for more information about how the training process works and what is involved:
<marie-claire.graf@youthnegotiators.org> or team@youthnegotiators.org
