Today, on 12th August 2020, the Rwandan youth join fellow youth across the world to celebrate the 2020 International Youth Day (IYD2020) under the theme “Youth engagement for global action”.
In 1999, the UN-General Assembly adopted a resolution that every year, on 12th of August, the International Youth Day (IYD) has to be celebrated globally to mark the vital role of youth in the society, their strengths and their needs.
This year’s theme seeks to highlight ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.
It will shed more light on the need to enable the engagement of youth by making local, national and global institutions more inclusive for the purpose of strengthening their capacity to achieve global action.
This event is planned to engage all Rwandan youth, in Rwanda and Diaspora, to join other youth from the whole world in three interconnected streams; engagement at community, national and global levels. It will give youth an opportunity to reflect on policies and programmes needed for continued youth empowerment, fighting poverty among the youth and mainstreaming young people into various strategies as well.
It will also challenge the youth themselves to play a lead role in creating the future they want. Besides, youth will also be mobilized to support government program like schools construction across all districts.
As a result of #COVID19 pandemic, the IYD2020 will be virtually celebrated using Webex and Social media to enable youth participate.
The event has been organised by The Ministry of Youth and Culture in collaboration with the National Youth Council, Imbuto Foundation and other partners.