UN Youth Ambassadors Network

Youth participation is one of the essentials in creating and shaping the world. With their unique perspective, one can recognize young people as a major human resource for development and key agents for social change, economic development and technological innovation. Youth participation is an effective tool for achieving enduring solutions and is key for future development. The significance of the youth has to be valued and needs to be reflected in the United Nations system. Young people as experts on youth concerns need to be engaged in the process of decision-making.

It is for this reason that in 1981 the General Assembly addressed the member states to include youth delegates in their national delegation. Further steps were reached in 1995 with the adoption of the resolution 50/81 for the World Program of Action for Youth by the General Assembly. With this attempt, the United Nations is endorsing young people to stand up for their beliefs and create an impact on an international level. Incorporating youth delegates in the national delegations of each country is prior to successful debates and reaching objectives. More than 25 countries have so far established a youth delegate program due to the resolution. But it represents barely 15 percent of the total number of Member States, which is obviously not enough! Young people need to be given a voice and should be encouraged to support local UNA’s or approaches for creating youth delegate programs in their countries and to have an impact on their future.  
 
Young people are far from being inactive in this struggle. As UN Secretary General Guterres said, young people are critical agents of change. It is for this reason that we see the exchange between young and engaged individuals as highly effective in the further implementation of UN Youth Participation in their countries and potentially as youth delegates at the United Nations. We hope to create an environment, conducive to this exchange. A chance for young people who are passionate about youth participation for the UN to meet, share their experiences and learn together throughout and beyond the workshop.  
 
We target the Youth in particular, as it can: - Create awareness and communicate the goals to their peers and society at large - Identify solutions, innovate approaches and take action  - Enrich the political discussions with new perspectives, creativity, energy and idealism - Make a valuable contribution to successful and sustainable political decisions - Promote intergenerational partnerships and design-focused activities to make UN Youth Participation a reality.
 
By bringing together young people from different countries and backgrounds we aim at furthering and deepening UN Youth Participation. Through follow-up activities, we hope to empower participants to create a network to share experiences and know-how with. The impact of the event thereby gains long-lasting influence and strong impact. Thereby, UNA Germany, and upon completion also the participants, will be able to share their knowledge and truly enact change internationally.
 
What are UN Youth Ambassadors? Mission: Inform, Engage, Empower.
UN Youth Ambassadors are young youth activists (18-30). They are ambassadors and multipliers for the promotion of the United Nations in their country and local communities. Their mission: Inform, Engage, Empower. In cooperation and with the support of the national UNA and their regional UN Ambassadors Youth Network they design new projects to empower young people to participate at UN forums and advocate for youth rights.