- Are you under 35?
- Are you passionate about advocating for the advancement of youth issues across the UN, in the areas of peace and security, sustainable development and human rights?
- Do you want to promote meaningful, inclusive and effective engagement of youth and youth-led and youth-focused organisations in the work of the UN?
- Do you want to create opportunities for strengthened UN system-wide coordination and accountability on youth issues?
Did you answer yes to all these questions?
Well then, this new role announced by the UN Secretary-General to become the first-ever Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs could be the chance of a lifetime for you! But be sure to get those applications in as the deadline is Monday 1st May at midnight New York time. All the information you need to know can be found here.
At Restless Development we are always incredibly excited about any opportunities that want to bring young people – their leadership, ideas and experience – to the heart of decision-making at the UN. We would genuinely love for this new role to be the start of a new and transformative era for the UN, where the power is truly shifted to young people.
But not just any young people – to the young people who don’t get to attend spaces like the ECOSOC Youth Forum; to the young people who are at the forefront of their communities achieving real change; to the young people who get discriminated against because of their identities, values or beliefs. Representation matters – and this new role has so much potential to change not just the UN, but the world.
So, just in case the UN Secretary-General is looking for any pointers for this new recruitment – here are the things that Restless Development would be looking for…
- Recruiting on potential – this might be someone who has not attended the past five ECOSOC Youth Forums or spoken at the last high-level UN panel event,but is nevertheless a young leader who has experience of working with other young people to demand change and as a result, brings powerful ideas and a willingness to learn.
- Strong values – someone who holds themselves to a set of clear values and principles in all that they do – standing up for equity, justice and inclusion and keen to make those values central to their work.
- A movement mobiliser – someone who wants to catalyse a global movement for change and who knows what it takes to engage and mobilise young people to take a stand and make change happen at scale.
- Outspoken – someone who is not afraid to speak up and defend the rights of all young people in any forum or meeting.
- A collaborator – someone who sees the power of creating intergenerational and diverse collaborations and connections to achieve positive change.
We want to wish all the young people out there who apply for this role the best of luck – and whoever is selected, remember that Restless Development remains committed to working with you and the wider UN system to drive forward a new and transformative era for young people.
Let’s do this!
Feature Photo by Tomas Eidsvold on Unsplash
