Generation Hope: Young People in a Changing World there is something that you could kindly help me understand, before I forget it’s important? The thing is: if countries are like my classroom and are populated by a youth like ours who hope what we hope and so who are as naïve as you think we must be – when is it that we will learn enough experience to understand how to spot our differences, guard our opportunities, separate our wealth, battle our opponents and control our aspirations? I might try to miss that lesson. I hope so. Yours faithfully, Paraschos Cant Note: This essay, which won The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2015, has been reproduced with permission from the Royal Commonwealth Society. Youth and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Nicola Shepherd Focal Point, UN Programme on Youth The international community took a bold step towards addressing the world’s pressing development challenges when it adopted the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda is a plan of action for people, the planet, peace and prosperity, with partnership at its heart. The new universal agenda includes 17 SDGs, which have 169 targets and 230 indicators, demonstrating its scale and ambition. The goals are integrated and indivisible, and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. The goals and targets will stimulate action over the next 15 years and young people will need to be key partners in those actions. While youth are specifically addressed in some of the targets and indicators related to the goals, it is important to clarify that all goals are universal and – whether implicitly or explicitly mentioned – the needs and role of young people can be considered in all of the goals, not simply those that specifically refer to youth. The SDGs that explicitly refer to young people fall into two categories: those that refer to age disaggregation or age groups, and those that specifically mention young people. Eight goals refer to age disaggregation or age groups in the goal, targets or indicators. These are goals 1 (poverty), 3 (health), 5 (gender equality), 8 (decent work), 10 (inequality), 11 (sustainable cities), 16 (peaceful, just and inclusive societies) and 17 (partnership). There are explicit references to youth, young men and women, adolescents, girls and women aged 20–24 in the targets or indicators of nine goals. These are goals 1 (poverty), 2 (hunger), 3 (health), 4 (education), 5 (gender equality), 6 (clean water and sanitation), 8 (decent work), 13 (climate action) and 16 (peaceful, just and inclusive societies). Youth around the world can contribute to the SDGs in a number of ways. Young people and their organisations were actively involved in the development of the 2030 Agenda through the Major Group for Children and Youth, and continue to be involved at the global level. Now that the process of implementing the 2030 Agenda is moving to the national level, it is anticipated that similar multi-stakeholder processes can be built on. Partnership is central to the 2030 Agenda. In fact, SDG 17 on partnership specifically targets multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilise and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the SDGs in all countries, in particular developing countries, and to encourage and promote effective public, public–private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships. Governments and other organisations can fully involve youth in the implementation of the SDGs, by including them in influential high level and developmental meetings at local, regional and global level. Such inclusion can also work towards bringing greater transparency and accountability. \ 17