Expanding role of children and youth in sustainable development

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends advancing the role of youth and actively involving them in the protection of the environment and the promotion of economic and social development. Agenda 21 also recommends that UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP and non-governmental organizations should develop support programmes to involve young people and children in environment and development issues, such as children's and youth hearings and building on decisions of the World Summit for Children.

UNESCO's programme includes the following: fostering the participation of young people in development projects and activities, as well as their contribution to international understanding, peace, human rights and democracy.

1. Strengthening
2. Orienting economic policy toward social need
3. Linking children and the environment
4. Increasing public awareness of sustainable development
5. Improving youth roles
6. Expanding
7. Establishing strong citizen voice

1. Training youth for employment in sustainable development
2. Supporting International Youth Year
3. Providing educational media for the young on sustainable development
4. Involving youth in planning, implementing and assessing development projects
5. Involving youth in environmental decision-making at all levels
6. Involving school children in studies on environmental health and conservation
7. Informing governments of young people's proposals
8. Including youth representatives in delegations to international meetings
9. Including youth in task forces on environmental education
10. Improving coordination of international programmes for youth
11. Giving children and young people a greater voice on sustainable development issues
12. Developing responsible youth action
13. Consulting youth groups on sustainable development programmes
14. Considering proposals of youth groups in sustainable development policymaking

1. Using school children as community focal points for environmental information
2. Reorienting education towards sustainable development
3. Ratifying convention on the rights of the child
4. Providing environmental education in schools
5. Protecting children's rights
6. Increasing participation of children in integrated community management of resources
7. Incorporating children's concerns in sustainable development policies and strategies
8. Improving primary environmental care programmes for children
9. Improving cooperation on sustainable development programmes for and by children
10. Implementing health, nutrition, education and poverty alleviation programmes for children
11. Giving urban children practical ecological experience
12. Expanding educational opportunities for all children
13. Ensuring competent youth
14. Delegating sustainable development to appropriate level

1. Youth
2. Unsustainable
3. Unsociable
4. Uneconomic
5. Undeveloped
6. Underdevelopment
7. Overdevelopment
8. Development

1. Agenda 21
2. Children, Youth and Developmental Science in the 2015–2030 Global Sustainable Development Goals
3. Young Reporters for the Environment
4. Blue Flag Campaign
5. The Role of Child and Youth Participation in Development Effectiveness
6. Switched On: Youth at the heart of sustainable development