It’s come about through an alliance of the world’s largest youth movements and organizations, together with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Foundation.

The “Global Youth Mobilization for Generation Disrupted” is being led by the so-called ‘Big 6’ youth organizations (Young Men’s Christian Association, YMCA; World Young Women’s Christian Association, YWCA; World Organization of the Scout Movement; World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC; and The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award), which collectively includes some 250 million young people, and aims to support young people to come up with ways of mitigating the ravages of COVID-19 worldwide.

The initiative will feature heavily at the upcoming Global Youth Summit in April 2021, powered in part by some $5 million from the WHO and UN Foundation-generated COVID Solidarity Response Fund to support local and national youth organizations, including grants for youth-led solutions and an accelerator programme to scale up existing response efforts.

Back us, for the future

WHO’s leadership, the Big 6 and youth organizations around the world, are calling on governments, businesses and policy makers to back the Global Youth Mobilization effort and commit to investing in the future of young people.

These measures will directly support young people engaged at the grassroots level to tackle some of the most pressing health and societal challenges resulting from the pandemic, said the UN health agency.
“WHO is honoured to join this truly exciting and powerful global movement to mobilize and empower youth worldwide to be the driving force of the recovery to COVID-19,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Joining forces with the Big 6 and the United Nations Foundation provides WHO and the world a unique opportunity to learn from hundreds of millions of young people and be guided by their sustainable solutions to help communities build back better from the pandemic.”

Long-lasting consequences

While the direct health impacts of the pandemic on young people have been generally less severe, they are being disproportionately affected by the longer-lasting consequences of the pandemic.

This includes disruption to education, economic uncertainty, loss or lack of employment opportunities, impacts on physical and mental health, and trauma from domestic violence.

Significant mental anxiety, for example, brought on by COVID-19 has been identified in nearly 90 per cent of young people; more than a billion students in almost every country have been impacted by school closures; and one in six young people worldwide have lost their jobs.

But at the same time, young people are also driving change and implementing solutions in response to COVID-19 by taking action through community-based interventions and voluntary service, such as taking on a first responder role by delivering food and supplies to those in need.

The Global Youth Mobilization will draw attention to the urgent need for solutions to support young people, and to highlight the critical leadership role young people are playing in their communities to counter the effects of the pandemic.

Statement of support

“We are proud to team up with the WHO to provide opportunities and funding to help millions of young people across the globe to respond to local challenges related to COVID-19 in their communities”, said the leadership of the Big 6 in a joint statement.

“The mobilization will provide direct financial and programmatic support to youth organizations at the national and international level. We believe that young people have the solutions to solve their own problems, and by providing a global youth platform, combined with national activation for youth projects, we can unleash the skills, enthusiasm and desire for young people to be a force for good in their communities.”

As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) announced the next phase of its Supplies Partnership to secure essential contraception and maternal health medicines for millions of women and adolescent girls over the next decade. 

“The global community must act now with commitments to support women and girls”, stressed UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem. “Failing to do so will have dire consequences: more unintended pregnancies, more unsafe abortions and more women dying from preventable causes”.  

With an estimated investment of $2.5 billion by 2030, the renewed Partnership has the potential to prevent 141 million unintended pregnancies, 328,000 maternal deaths and 42 million unsafe abortions by that time. 

COVID repercussions 

Despite mitigation efforts, the coronavirus pandemic has slowed or even reversed many countries’ decades of progress in family planning, while pandemic-related restrictions, such as lockdowns, together with fears of contracting the virus, have led to fewer women seeking reproductive health services.  

“With countries leading the charge, we must rally to improve women’s health and well-being globally, especially at this time of heightened vulnerabilities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic”, urged the UNFPA head. 

Support imperative 

Countries and partners around the world are making bold commitments to support the next phase of the programme, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom – together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Kühne Foundation, according to UNFPA.   

To date, contraceptive and maternal health services supplied by the programme have had the potential to avert 89 million unintended pregnancies, 227,000 maternal deaths, 1.4 million children’s deaths and 26.8 million unsafe abortions. 

And since 2007, the UNFPA Supplies programme has mobilized more than $1.8 billion in support. 

“A more inclusive and prosperous world can only be achieved by addressing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people, and that’s exactly what we’re working towards in this Partnership”, said Karina Gould, Canadian Minister of International Development, in a press release.