Global Youth Mobilization for Generation Disrupted

Rooted in meaningful youth participation and engagement, the initiative is designed to be youth-led, community-driven, evidence-based, and inclusive of diverse communities. Organisers observe that, in local communities around the world, young people are driving change and contributing to the pandemic response and efforts through grassroots actions and voluntary service. The Global Youth Mobilization focuses on elevating the ideas, ingenuity, and innovation of young people working to respond to the pandemic.

It will do this through:

• A Global Youth Summit in April 2021 that will feature a series of digital events dedicated to recognising and celebrating the contributions young people have already made in their communities to fighting COVID-19, and inspiring further action.
• An early 2021 open call to all young people to submit their solutions to local health and societal COVID-19 challenges - leading to financial support for local and national youth organisations, grants for youth-led solutions, and an accelerator programme to scale up existing response efforts.
• Advocacy work in the form of policy papers, such as a joint position paper on non-formal education stressing the importance of education and learning as lifelong processes that contribute to the development of young people, and a paper meant to champion post-pandemic youth futures. The later [PDF] includes these calls to action for policymakers:
  1. Ensure that children and young people from diverse backgrounds play a direct, active, and powerful role in making decisions and developing policies that affect them and their future.
  2. Ensure equal access to health care for children and young people, regardless of background or employment status, with mental health as a key priority. If suitable approved vaccines will be made available, ensure free or low-cost vaccination schemes for vulnerable children and youth.
  3. Invest in more user-friendly, low-cost/high-efficiency systems to ensure children and young people have inclusive access to education, as well as in promoting digital inclusion and online safety.
  4. Promote digital safety and privacy as a fundamental human right, ensuring and maintaining a safe space for everyone irrespective of race, region, gender, sexual orientation, age, economic background, and any other attributes.
  5. Prioritise upskilling and reskilling educational paths that promote skill development and vocational learning that will help future-proof careers. This includes competences around financial education, digital skills, and civic skills.
  6. Promote active investment in building strong and resilient communities as a core element of public policies and programmes, with meaningful engagement of young people in this process.
  7. Ensure that children and young people are at the forefront of COVID-19 recovery programmes and policies and that they are not disproportionately affected by budget cuts.
  8. Support youth-serving organisations at all levels (including grassroots organisations) during and after the COVID-19 crisis with increased funding or alternative funding schemes, ensuring the survival of the youth work sector.
  9. Adapt national and local youth policy to the new realities of digital and blended youth work.

Youth, COVID-19

According to the Big 6, young people are disproportionately affected by the long-lasting consequences of the pandemic. Such effects include disruptions to education, economic uncertainty, loss or lack of employment opportunities, impacts on physical and mental health, and trauma from domestic violence. For example, mental anxiety brought on by COVID-19 has been identified in nearly 90% of young people; more than 1 billion students in almost every country have been impacted by school closures; and 1 in 6 young people worldwide have lost their jobs during the pandemic.

Formed in 1996, the Big 6 includes organisations that collectively involve in excess of 250 million young people.