Young Refugees’ Participation, Leadership & Self-Reliance - The Future We Cannot Afford to Ignore

Co-Sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Global Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action, Danish Refugee Council, War Child, Global Refugee Youth Network, Women’s Refugee Commission, Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative, Tertiary Refugee Student Network, ILO, Save the Children, UNHCR, UNICEF, and UNFPA.

Overview

This Dialogue & Reception will use this pivotal moment at the close of the Summit of the Future to showcase how and why investment in young refugees’ active participation and leadership can strengthen their resilience, reduce vulnerabilities and lead to more sustainable outcomes. Through dialogue, we will showcase good practices that finance and support access to higher education, skills development, employment and entrepreneurship, and strengthen meaningful youth engagement and youth-led initiatives. The dialogue will also seek commitments to strengthen investments that scale up these good practices in order to advance self-reliance and solutions for young people across forced displacement settings in ways that actualize and complement the Pact for the Future.

Expected outcomes

• Strengthen commitment from stakeholders to invest in higher education, skills development, transition to decent jobs, and programming that promotes refugee youth self-reliance.
• Cultivate the critical role of young refugees as positive agents of change and the value of empowering them, including through partnerships with refugee youth-led organizations, to contribute to their communities and local economies.
• Promote innovative approaches to address and overcome the legal and practical barriers to economic inclusion for young refugees.
• Scale up good practices and partnerships that channel funds and provide technical support to refugee youth-led organizations (RYLOs), that are positively impacting and driving change in their communities.

Programme and Speakers