–as world dedicates an entire day to celebrating how the new generation is enriching the global conversation

By Alisa Lashley

IN the words of former President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, “We cannot always build a future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”
This famous quote of the US’s 32nd President, often referred to as ‘FDR’, came to mind on Wednesday as Guyana joined youths the world over in celebrating International Youth Day for the 20th consecutive year since the event was first commemorated on August 12, 2000.
And as has been the new ‘norm’ since the dreaded coronavirus first reared its ugly head and set the world in chaos, this year’s activities to mark the occasion were done a bit differently, but with much the same energy as under normal circumstances, and under the theme, “Youth Engagement for Global Action”.
According to United Nations, this year’s theme is a reflection of the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, and of how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.

In a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Young Stephon Gabriel, who happens to wear many hats, among them President of Linden Youth Leaders (LYL), and Chairman of the Presbytery of Guyana’s Youth Council, posited that among activities of the Day is showing how youths enrich the spaces in which they are actively involved, as well as understanding and seeing ways in which their engagement and representation in areas of youth development can be improved.
Said he: “Locally, we can begin to recognise the work of our youth more. Let’s have more awards; more engagements. Let’s have an actual policy in place that would ensure that a benefit is derived for the outstanding work that is being done by our young people. There are many who are actively involved, but are hardly recognized; the relevant agencies can bring light to that, and assist in some way in the promotion of the activities being done, or advancing the cause which the young people are fighting for.”

Gabriel also believes that youth involvement, both formal and informal, has proven to be somewhat beneficial to our democracy, in the sense that their vocal nature has promoted active citizenship, strengthened social responsibility, and enhanced some of our democratic processes, such as voting, protection of human rights, and active participation in the social/political sphere).

In addition, he implored Guyanese youths and youth leaders to not limit themselves to the opinions or expectations of others, and to remain involved while trying to not be discouraged in their work, because persistency is always deemed the key in achieving success that is due.

Sharing views similar to Gabriel’s was Jafar Gibbons, current President of the University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS), who said: “International Youth Day, in my estimation, seems to be a day of celebratory actions; celebrations that aim at acknowledging our youth leaders, potential youth leaders, and the works they are doing across the globe.”

Gibbons noted that here in Guyana, given that a large portion of our population is below the age of 35, leaders reflective of that demographic have influenced a lot of policy development from a political standpoint, and due to this, political parties are now ensuring that a particular percentage of their candidates are reflective of the youth population.

In closing, Gibbons left fellow youths a word of advice: “Your message, platform, and direction should stand on two pillars: Truth and integrity. Your truth and integrity should never submit to anyone or anything. Die, leaving intact those two qualities! Jeopardise them not! Too many of times our leaders distort the truth to suit a particular narrative, hence compromising their integrity. We must move away from leadership that compromises our integrity and our truths.”

Enabling the engagement of youth in formal political mechanisms does increase the fairness of political processes by reducing democratic deficits, contributes to better and more sustainable policies, and also has symbolic importance that can further contribute to restore trust in public institutions, especially among youth. Moreover, the vast majority of challenges humanity currently faces, such as the COVID-19 outbreak and climate change, require concerted global action, and the meaningful engagement and participation of young people to be addressed effectively.