COMMONWEALTH Heads, this year, declared 2023 the “Year of the Youth,” as a demonstration of their commitment to tackling the endemic challenges facing children and young people.
Following the devastating global pandemic and the tsunami of health, education, economic, employment and safety challenges it created, leaders at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) made a landmark declaration aimed at youth development.

After their historic meeting, which was delayed by COVID-19, the 22-page communique included commitments that would benefit young people, such as the landmark Kigali Declaration on Child Care and Protection Reform.

Among 10 key commitments in the bold, stand-alone declaration, Heads pledged to make health systems strong enough to withstand the shocks of future pandemics – particularly with a specific focus on protecting children; boost child protection and safeguard resources and tackle the primary issues that lead to children needing to be put into care and protection; collaborate with development agencies to boost aid and development assistance for children and young people, and support data collection so that interventions are targeted, and evidence-based.

Additionally, officials agreed to implement education reforms agreed upon at the 21st Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers, which focused on resilience and sustainability, learning technologies, leadership, transitions within and outside the education system, addressing disparities, and financing education.

The provision of high-quality, inclusive education is a crucial component of their commitment to ensuring that children can make up for the academic ground they lost due to the pandemic.
Collectively, heads declared 2023 to be the “Year of the Youth,” reaffirming their commitment to ensure that the Commonwealth’s focus is firmly placed on the empowerment of young people, who make up more than 60 per cent of the 2.6 billion people in the Commonwealth.

These results are the result of a strong, youth-led movement that sought to overcome the Commonwealth’s development challenges and culminated in a statement and action plan at the Commonwealth Youth Forum. Additionally, young people had the chance to speak face-to-face with Heads about their ideas.

Layne Robinson, Head of social policy at the Commonwealth stated: “Next year is not just the ‘Year of the Youth’, it is also the 50th anniversary of the Commonwealth Youth Programme, and I know we can achieve what is set out in this communique – particularly when I look back at what we have achieved since we started our youth programme.

“Those include the many youth-led projects we have supported through the Youth Awards; the development of the YDI to enable governments and organisations to create smart, evidence-based policies and interventions for youth; our leadership on youth work education and training; our support to youth ministers on policy development and implementation; and the networks we have built, which have helped to advance causes such as climate action – just to name a few of many initiatives.”

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2022 took place on 20-25 June 2022, in Kigali, Rwanda. Commonwealth leaders travelled to Rwanda to reaffirm their common values and form policies to improve the lives of all their citizens.