Statement by Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif on International Youth Day

NEW YORK, Aug. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — We live in a divided world of haves and have-nots. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. There’s education poverty, technology poverty, healthcare poverty, and food poverty. When you think about the dynamics of today’s world, there’s even empathy and poverty of humanity.

This divide deepens for young people living on the frontlines of the world’s most pressing humanitarian crises, in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Haiti, and Sudan, where the extraordinary potential of youth is being undermined by brutal armed conflict, forced displacement, the climate crisis, and other dire, growing challenges.

To empower today’s youth, we urgently need to address this growing divide. It starts with high-quality education, job training, and a broad set of supportive, fit-for-purpose lifelong learning resources that empower a whole generation of future leaders.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres notes, “Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires a seismic shift – which can only happen if we empower young people and work with them as equals.”

This year, International Youth Day calls on all of us to look at the power of digital paths to enhance sustainable development. Indeed, digitalization, artificial intelligence and other technological advances are transforming our world and offer unprecedented opportunities to accelerate sustainable development.

But in a world where 250 million children cannot read – or do not have access to school meals or mental health care – how can we harness the power of technology to accelerate our efforts to achieve the goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Education Cannot Wait – the United Nations Global Fund for Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises – puts youth at the heart of everything we do. This starts at the highest levels of ECW management, which includes two inspiring youth leaders, Mutesi Hadijah and Hector Ulloa, who are galvanizing a global youth movement through the Youth4ECW campaign.

With ECW’s investments, we are working to bridge the digital divide, extend remote learning, improve vocational training, and provide young people with the tools, training, and knowledge they need to navigate the rapidly changing world of the 21st century.

In Moldova, for example, ECW’s investments focused on Ukrainian refugee and host community children—and implemented by UNICEF and the Refugee Education Working Group—have led to the creation of 98 EduTech Labs in 32 regions. In countries such as Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, and Nigeria, ECW supports vocational training programs for adolescents who have been expelled from school.

These collective actions offer a necessary first step in bridging the divide for millions of children who are pushed into educational poverty by emergencies and protracted crises. But more must be done, and we call on private sector donors, high net worth individuals, and philanthropic foundations to provide urgently needed funding as we race to mobilize an additional $600 million to implement ECW’s three-year strategic program.

Together, through the power of inclusive education, digital pathways and lifelong learning, we can overcome divisions and create a world united by the richness of humanity.

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