Doha, March 05 (QNA) – HE Director General of the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) Khalifa bin Jassim Al Kuwari affirmed the QFFD continuing cooperation with different local and international partners to support youth and invest their energies as they are the main engine for achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.
In his opening speech to the second session of the Youth Track within the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which was held today under the title “Putting youth at the forefront: Paving the way for an enabling environment for youth to thrive and prosper”, His Excellency stressed the importance of youth issues and their potential for all those working in social activities who seek to build future leaders.
As the world’s population is nearly 8 billion, and while this growing population puts pressure on available resources, food security, water systems, the environment, and climate, it provides a force for change and shaping the future in an interconnected world, said the QFFD Director General.
He explained that nearly half of the world’s population is young people under the age of 24, and most of them live in the least developed countries, which poses many obstacles and challenges.
He noted the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic as it deprived nearly a billion and a half young people of attending their schools along with the serious health problems accompanying it, adding the pandemic also deepened the unemployment crisis and financing small projects for young people in the least developed countries, caused more forced closures, caused psychological and mental disorders among young people, and reduced their sense of belonging.
His Excellency stated that the percentage of those who do not find an opportunity for education, employment or training may reach about 23.3 percent, the highest since 2005.
In his speech, Al Kuwari touched on the suffering of many young people in countries torn apart by wars, climate crises, and earthquakes which prompted them to flee their homes, estimating that 20 percent of the 100 million displaced people are under the age of 17, as these young people suffer from difficult family conditions that forced them to work at a young age or to marry before the age of 12.
The QFFD Director General stressed young people’s ability to build a better future using technology, innovation and science, calling for providing specialized educational programs for them and realizing relative stability in their countries in order to create an environment that incubates ideas and mutations.
His Excellency stressed that collective action, which includes policy makers and youth themselves, is the most effective guarantee against the inequality and division from which these young people suffer.
Al Kuwari called for engaging youth as partners, not beneficiaries, when formulating visions and development policies for young people in the least developed countries, and encouraging them to be voices for change and expression in their societies.
Source: Qatar News Agency