today there are 1.8 billion young people
between the ages of 10 and 24 in the
world it is the largest cohort in human
history meeting their needs will be a
big challenge but it's also a big
opportunity they hold our shared future
in their hands every day we've read
about young people lending their ideas
and passions to fighting for change
social change political change change in
their communities imagine what they'll
create breakthroughs inventions maybe
new medicines new modes of
transportation new ways to communicate
sustainable economies and maybe even a
world at peace but this opportunity this
youth dividend is not a given 1.8
billion young women and young men are
standing at the door of adulthood are
they ready right now too few of them are
my favorite part of my job at UNICEF is
a chance to talk to meet with and hear
from young people all around the world
and they tell me about their hopes and
dreams and they have amazing hopes and
dreams for what they'll accomplish in
their lives but what they're also
telling me is that they have fears they
feel they're facing a series of urgent
crises a crisis of demographics a crisis
of Education a crisis of employment a
crisis of violence and a crisis for
girls if you look at these crises you
realize that their urgent and they need
to be addressed now because they tell us
that they're worried they're worried
that they might not get the education
that
they need and you know what they're
right
200 million adolescents are out of
school worldwide about the population of
Brazil and those that are in school feel
that they may not be getting the right
skills globally six in ten children and
young people do not meet the minimum
proficiency level for reading and
mathematics no country can be successful
if nearly half of its population of
young people are unable to read or write
and what about the lucky few who are in
secondary school many of them are
dropping out because they're worried
that they're not getting skills that
they can use to make a livelihood and
sometimes their parents can no longer
afford the fees it's a tragedy and young
people are also telling me that they're
worried about employment that they won't
be able to find a job and again they're
right every month 10 million young
people reach working age it's a
staggering number some will go on for
further education but many will enter
the workforce and our world is not
creating 10 million new jobs each month
the competition is fierce for the jobs
that are available so imagine being a
young person today needing a job seeking
a livelihood ready to build a future and
opportunities are hard to find young
people are also telling me that they're
worried that they're not getting the
skills that they need and again they're
right we are finding ourselves at a time
in the world when the world is changing
so fast for work we're in the fourth
Industrial Revolution young people do
not want to be on the farms and in rural
communities they want to go to the
cities they want to learn future skills
for future work they want to learn
digital technology and green
jeez they want to have a chance to learn
modern agriculture they want to learn
business and entrepreneurship so that
they can create a business of their own
they want to be nurses and radiologists
and pharmacists and doctors and they
want to have all of the skills that
they'll need for the future they also
want to learn the trades like
construction and electricians these are
all the professions that a country needs
as well as the professions that have not
been invented yet and young people are
also telling me that they're worried
about violence at home online in school
in their communities and again they're
right a young person can have hundreds
of friends on social media but when they
need to find a friendly face someone who
can be there as their friend to talk to
they do not find one they face bullying
harassment and more and hundreds of
millions are facing exploitation and
abuse and violence every seven minutes
an adolescent boy or girl somewhere in
the world is killed by an act of
violence and girls are telling me that
they're especially worried about their
futures and sadly their right to girls
face prejudice and discrimination they
face early childhood marriage and they
face life threatening early pregnancy
imagine the population of the United
States now double it that's the number
of women who were married before their
18th birthday six hundred and fifty
million and many were mothers while they
were still children themselves one out
of every three women will face physical
abuse or sexual abuse in her lifetime so
no wonder girls are worried about their
futures these urgent crises may not be a
reality in your life or in your
neighborhood
and perhaps you've had opportunities for
a good education and for marketable
skills and forgetting a job and maybe
you've never faced violence or prejudice
or discrimination but there are tens of
millions of young people who are not so
lucky and they are sounding the alarm
for their futures and that is why UNICEF
and our many public and private partners
are launching a new global initiative
young people themselves have named it
and it's called generation unlimited or
genu or genu so what they're saying is
it's our time it's our turn
it's our future our goal is very
straightforward we want every young
person in school learning training or
age-appropriate employment by the year
2030 this goal is urgent it's necessary
it's ambitious but we think it's also
achievable so we're calling out for
cutting-edge solutions and new ideas
ideas that will give young people a
fighting chance for their futures
we don't know all the answers so we're
reaching out to businesses and
governments and nonprofits and academia
and communities and innovators for help
genu is to be an open platform where
people can come and share their ideas
and solutions about what works what does
not work and importantly what might work
so if we can take these ideas and add a
little bit of seed money and add some
good partners and add good political
will we think they can scale up to reach
thousands and millions of people around
the world and with this project we're
also going to do something new we're
going to co.design and co-create with
young people so with genu they're going
to be in the driver's seat steering us
all along the way in Argentina there is
a program where
connect students who are in rural remote
hard-to-reach mountainous communities
with something they've seldom seen a
secondary school teacher so these
students come to a classroom they're
joined by a community teacher and
they're connected to urban schools
online and there is a secondary school
teacher who is teaching them about
digital technology and a good secondary
school education without them ever
having to leave their own communities
and in South Africa there's a program
called techno girls and these are girls
from disadvantaged neighborhoods who are
studying the stem program area science
technology engineering and math and they
have a chance to Job Shadow this is a
way that they then can see themselves in
jobs that are in engineering in science
and maybe in the space program in
Bangladesh we have partners who are
training tens of thousands of young
people in the trades so that they can
become motorcycle repair people or
mobile phone service people but these
are a chance to see their own
livelihoods and maybe even to have a
business of their own and in Vietnam
there is a program where we are pairing
young entrepreneurs with the needs in
their own local communities so with this
program group gathered and they decided
that they would solve the problem of
transportation for people with
disabilities in their communities so
with a mentor and a bit of seed funding
they've now developed a new app to help
the whole community and I've seen how
these programs can make a difference
when I was in Lebanon I visited a
program called girls got IT or girls got
it and in this program girls who've been
studying computer skills and the STEM
program have a chance to work
side-by-side with young professionals so
that they can learn firsthand what it's
like to be an architect
designer or a scientist and when you see
these girls the smiles on their faces
the hot lights in their eyes they are so
excited they have hope for the future
they want to change the world and now
with this program and these mentors
they'll be able to do it but these ideas
and programs are just a start they'll
only reach a fraction of the young
people that we need to reach we want to
take these ideas and find ways to scale
them up to reach more young people in
more communities in more places around
the world and we want to dream big could
every school everywhere in the world no
matter how remote or mountainous or even
if it's in a refugee camp
could they be collected to the Internet
could we have instant translation for
young people so that you could get a
good education in your own language
anywhere in the world and would it be
possible that we could connect the
education in your school with skills
that you're going to need to get a job
in your own community so that you
actually can move from school to work
and more in each one of us help in our
everyday lives and in our workplaces are
there ways that we could support young
people young people are asking us for
apprenticeships for job shadowing for
internships could we do this young
people are also asking us for work-study
programs places where they can learn and
earn could we do this and could we reach
out to a community that's nearby that's
less advantaged and help them young
people are also saying that they want to
help other young people they want more
space and more voice so that they can
gather to help each other in HIV centers
in refugee camps but also to stop online
bullying and early child marriage we
need ideas we need ideas that are big
and
small ideas that are local and global
this in the end is our responsibility
a massive generation of young people are
about to inherit our world it is our
duty to leave a legacy of hope and
opportunity for them but also with them
young people are 25% of our population
but they are 100% of our future and
they're calling out for a fighting
chance to build a better world so their
call should be our calling the calling
of our time the time is now the need is
urgent and 1.8 billion young people are
waiting thank you
[Applause]