Distinguished Ministers, Excellencies, Heads of Delegations, colleagues from the UN, Youth Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a great pleasure for me to speak to you at this most important conference, the World Conference on Youth, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I am happy to be addressing you on this very important occasion.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have made it possible for this conference to happen, and extend special appreciation to the Government of Sri Lanka and President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Minister Dullas Alahapperuma. We at UN-Habitat strongly believe that partnerships between government and youth are critical to the success of any venture, and applaud this important partnership.

This conference is taking place in the context of the UN Secretary General’s 5-year plan in which youth is a key focus area. Stemming from the Secretary General’s commitment, the Envoy for Youth’s office was created, and Ahmad Alhindawi was appointed. UN-Habitat has worked closely with the Envoy, member states, and the youth community in developing and implementing programmes such as the Youth 21 initiative, which seeks to improve youth engagement in the UN system, and as the co-chair of the Inter-agency Network on Youth Development where a Youth System Wide Action Plan was developed and is now being implemented.

This conference is also taking place in the context of two critical global trends– rapid urbanization and the growth of the youth population which is nearing 1.8 billion, representing the largest youth cohort to ever have existed. What is less known is that these youth live, by and large, in cities and towns; with the cities of the developing world accounting for over 90% of the world’s urban growth and youth accounting for a large percentage of those inhabitants. There are some estimates that as many as 60% of all urban dwellers will be under the age of 18 by 2030.

These are young people who are looking to better themselves, their communities, countries and the world. They are seeking for opportunities in education, employment, and finding a place to live and start their own families. Their youthful energy and innovation can be a positive force for change at all levels if they are pro-actively engaged as partners. We see this energy in the programmes we undertake globally from as far as Latin America, Africa, the Asia Pacific to the Europe and the US.

Youth need to have a central role in national and local governance and development processes and we have seen them lead to great success in some of our programmes such as the One Stop Youth Resource Centres and the Urban Youth Fund, which have engaged tens of thousands of youth over the last decade in projects that advance urban sustainability. I encourage you to connect with our representatives here to find out more about the programmes.

I also wish to commend the programmes that UN-Habitat has jointly implemented with the Government of Sri Lanka in the areas of training in construction skills in Northern Sri Lanka, and in town and country planning with the University of Moratuwa.

We at UN-Habitat are reaching out to youth globally as partners to bring about a better and more sustainable world. We congratulate youth globally in their overwhelming response to the My World survey, which has now reached over 2,000,000 people globally, with 63% of those respondents being youth, and almost 500,000 being youth from Sri Lanka.

Looking ahead, it is important that the world keeps its focus on youth and urbanization issues. We have just come from Medellin, Colombia where the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum and World Urban Youth Assembly were held. Over 20,000 people, over ½ of them youth, sent a clear message– sustainable urbanization is critical to the health and wellbeing of our world’s citizens, and young men and women have a key role to play.

An additional platform for global engagement on youth issues is the forthcoming Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (HABITAT III) in 2016. The conference will focus on a “new urban agenda” in which the issues of youth and women are critical. We need to hear your voices and ensure your full engagement in this process. Currently national reports are being prepared through consultations with key partners and stakeholders including youth and women and we kindly request you to engage in this process. UN-Habitat avails itself to support you in this regard.

And lastly, I see that you have a strong focus on the post-2015 agenda at this conference. Many member states are advocating for a standalone goal on sustainable cities and human settlements in recognition of its fundamental role in sustianable development.

As I conclude I wish to reiterate the fact that youth empowerment and urbanization are dominant global trends and we at UN-Habitat are committed to work with you all to guide both in a sustainable direction.

I leave it to my colleague Doug Ragan, to brief you more on our work here at the World Youth Conference.