Youth Envoy to call for more efforts to empower and engage young people ahead of UN Forum

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake, will brief the media on 26 January 2018, ahead of the largest official annual gathering on youth issues at the organization.

Wickramanayake, the youngest senior official at the UN, was appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres in June 2017. As the Organization’s second Envoy on Youth, she is responsible for advocating for young people around the world, including promoting global efforts to empower young people as rights-holders, agents of change and torchbearers of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

More than 500 youth advocates from around the world will meet with government ministers and officials at the Economic and Social Council Youth Forum form 30 to 31 January 2018. The Forum presents a key opportunity to address challenges that today’s generation of young people, the largest the world has ever known, is facing, and advance the role of youth in implementing the global development agenda.

The Press Conference will be streamed live on UN WebTV: http://webtv.un.org .

What: Press Conference by the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake Where: United Nations Headquarters, New York When: Friday, 26 January 2018, 12:15 p.m. EST

Media contacts:

UN Department of Public Information

Devi Palanivelu, T: +1 (212) 963-1104 | E: palanivelu@un.org

Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth

Iryna Gudyma, T: +1 (732) 330-7180 | E: iryna.gudyma@gmail.com