The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have launched a worldwide campaign to assist young people uncover abilities and profession alternatives that may contribute to a sustainable future.
The initiative, christened “See It, Be It,” was introduced on Thursday on the sidelines of the continued seventeenth session of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia.
The campaign seeks to showcase the people, abilities and profession alternatives shaping a nature-positive, low-carbon future, the United Nations mentioned in an announcement.
It will characteristic young professionals making a distinction throughout science, know-how, enterprise, agriculture, communications, finance, the artistic industries and neighborhood management.
From scientists restoring ecosystems and entrepreneurs constructing sustainable companies to innovators growing new applied sciences and neighborhood leaders defending native environments, their tales will reveal how young people can construct careers that profit each people and the planet.
“Young people need more than new opportunities to build a sustainable future: they need to know these opportunities exist, understand how to pursue them and see people with whom they can identify already making a living through them,” UNICEF mentioned.
The company famous that analysis, together with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Cultivating the Future report, highlights how young people’s profession expectations stay concentrated in a comparatively slender vary of conventional professions.
It added that analysis by UNICEF and the European Training Foundation additionally discovered that profession steering failed to showcase alternatives rising from the green transition adequately.
“These gaps underline the importance of making a wider range of career pathways visible, particularly to young people in developing countries who have fewer opportunities to access career guidance and professional networks,” the UN mentioned.
Objectives and prospects
According to the UN, the “See It, Be It” campaign goals to broaden young people’s horizons by presenting various, relatable function fashions and displaying how their pursuits, abilities, and ambitions will help construct a extra sustainable world.
The campaign goals to attain 500 million young people worldwide by the tip of 2027.
It brings collectively organisations, youth networks, educators, employers, communicators, and sustainability professionals to share tales and develop their attain.
Early supporters embody the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, a world community connecting young people working to defend biodiversity; the Nature Working Group of YOUNGO, the official kids and youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; and the Youth Negotiators Academy, a youth-led organisation that trains young people to take part in multilateral negotiations.
The UN mentioned it was inviting companions to contribute tales, amplify profiles by way of their networks, and assist guarantee young people from totally different nations and communities can entry a broad vary of function fashions and profession alternatives.
Silvia Mestroni, UNICEF’s performing consultant in Armenia, mentioned the initiative would assist young people recognise their potential and discover methods to contribute to a extra resilient world.
“Every child and young person deserves the chance to imagine a future full of possibility and see how their interests and talents can make a difference sustainably,” she mentioned.
Ms Mestroni added that connecting young people with various function fashions and tales of change might broaden their horizons, construct confidence, and encourage them to discover alternative ways to contribute to a sustainable future.
Similarly, Midori Paxton, UNDP’s world head of biodiversity and ecosystems, harassed the necessity to make sustainable profession alternatives extra seen to young people.
“Science tells us we’ll need three earths to sustain us by 2050 if we carry on the way we are,” she mentioned, emphasising the necessity to transition in the direction of nature-positive and low-carbon existence and economies.
Ms Paxton mentioned youthful generations have important potential to form a future the place people and nature thrive. Still, she harassed that this potential requires entry to alternatives and the flexibility to envision what’s attainable.
“Through See It, Be It, we want to make the people and pathways driving change far more visible and help many more young people recognise that there is a place for their talents in building a sustainable future,” she mentioned.
CBD COP17
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that representatives of governments, Indigenous peoples, native communities and different stakeholders had convened in Yerevan, Armenia, for CBD COP17.
The convention, scheduled for 19–30 October underneath the theme “Taking Action for Nature,” brings nations collectively to speed up efforts to halt and reverse world biodiversity loss.
The 2026 UN Biodiversity Conference additionally consists of the twelfth assembly of the events to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the sixth assembly of the events to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing.
Discussions are centered on reviewing collective progress, strengthening implementation help, advancing scientific and coverage steering, addressing the monetary and financial components influencing biodiversity outcomes, bettering biosafety and selling the honest and equitable sharing of advantages arising from genetic sources.
At COP17, nations will undertake the primary world overview of collective progress underneath the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The overview is anticipated to assess how far nations have progressed in the direction of their commitments and determine gaps requiring pressing motion.
Other priorities embody mobilising finance, strengthening capacity-building and worldwide cooperation, and increasing the participation of indigenous peoples and native communities in biodiversity conservation.
Financing stays vital as a result of implementing biodiversity commitments requires sustainable sources, particularly for nations dealing with competing growth priorities and restricted institutional capability.
The convention will even study the coverage and financial circumstances that affect biodiversity outcomes, together with how governments and different stakeholders can align growth actions with conservation aims.
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