World youth set priorities for post-2015 development agenda

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA: The journey into the future has begun with the BYND2015 Global Youth Summit setting priorities for the Future We Want. The BYND2015 Youth Declaration will be presented to the president of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla, who will take the collective message of the world's youth to the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

The aim of young people gathered in Costa Rica, and those participating from remote hubs around the world, is to influence the priorities of global leaders and decision-makers at the United Nations as they set the agenda for sustainable development beyond 2015 to build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Young participants at BYND2015 called on governments to provide more flexible, dynamic and open means of governing to reach more people more easily than presently possible. They emphasized that the key to a successful development paradigm will be innovation and asked for education systems that equip students with not just theoretical knowledge, but with a practical mix of marketable, innovative and relevant skills needed to compete in the global, digital economy.

In the area of healthcare, participants believed ICT tools should be developed that will redefine how we experience health care in the future, with innovative systems that would connect patients to information on health services, and improve the issues of accessibility, affordability and acceptability.

Focusing on a sustainable future, the Summit called for a world where we don't have to choose between quality of life and quality of the environment and called on governments to leverage innovative, ICT-based tools for warning, information, preparedness and recovery in the face of natural disasters. They also advocated being smart and safe, calling for greater awareness-raising to make our online communities safe while embracing all the tools, technologies and industries which shape the online world.

"Young people nurtured in a world of technological innovation have demonstrated at BYND2015 that ICTs are the driving force to meet future sustainable development goals," said ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Touré. "Their engagement in the Global Youth Summit - the hundreds who made the journey to Costa Rica, and the thousands who connected from remote hubs around the world - ensures their inclusion in the most important decisions of the 21st Century. After all, today's youth will inherit the world tomorrow. And they will be our future leaders."

In a first for UN summits, young people from around the world showed collectively that ICTs connect people in ways never experienced earlier and that social media can forge positive engagement beyond national and cultural barriers in a common purpose to make the world a better place.