“2019: Year of the Youth the Role of Millennials in Building

Peaceful, Sustainable and Dignified Future.”

The Youth is the generation who will grow up to substitute the power from the present

generation, so that means a responsibility for young people to be committed with the

improvements of the future. Those improvements mean to learn from the past in order

of not repeating the negative actions and decisions taken and look for solutions of the

issues that affect all kind of life in earth.

According to demographic projections there are over 1,800 million people between 10

and 24 years of age and this number is expected to continue to increase until about

2,070. Today’s youth is the largest generation of young people in history and is also

part of the first generation that can put an end to poverty and related issues, and the

last one that can avoid worst climate change impacts. That’s why we cannot talk

about Sustainable development without including youth on a significant way.

Now we are living in time, where young people need to be more futuristic, innovators, creators,

knowledgeable, and to be the leader for the future. In order to make this attributes happen, the

older age group should allow to develop them in many ways

Young people need to be the innovators, creators, constructors and leaders of the

future, but in order to make this attributes visible, the older age groups should allow to
develop them in many ways. This means that the exchange of the experience with the

new ideas of young people should be an instrument to new proposals and

projects. This is why substantial and strategic human capital investments especially

in young people are a key in this process of generating new ideas to contribute

achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The role of Youth in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is threefold in my

opinion: generating new ideas, taking actions effectively and holding governments

accountable.

We as a part of this generation need to use the power of our creativity and ingenuity to

meet the SDG’s targets, based on the unique perspectives each person has due to their

background and experiences. Coupled with socially minded entrepreneurial thinking,

focusing this potential on getting results which solve problems could be exactly what

someone is looking for - why wait to try something? The next Nikola Tesla, Donald

Henderson or Patrice Lumumba could be reading these words right now. (Hopefully a

woman though either way ;) I promised myself this year that I would have the courage to

think bigger: this has made 2016 almost unbelievable. Nonetheless, success and failure

have gone hand in hand. Everyone owes it to themselves to go beyond their comfort

zone, put in the effort to put an idea out there, maybe exceeding what you feel capable

of - we can learn better by doing it so mess up once in a while! Never give up on your

passion for making a difference.