The WHO Youth Council has released a bold "Youth Declaration on Creating Healthy Societies" during the World Health Summit in Berlin, calling on governments, civil society, and the private sector to empower youth in tackling today’s health challenges. This declaration highlights the essential role of young people in shaping global health and outlines 10 calls to action.
Kate Ndocko, a member of the JA PreventNCD Youth Advisory Group (YAG), played a key role in this initiative, providing an official quote for the WHO press release. Ndocko emphasized,
“This Declaration represents our collective commitment and priorities to help communities, especially youth at local, regional, and global levels, to be healthier and more resilient in the face of the many health challenges the world faces today, as well as those ahead.”
She also participated in the Young Leaders for Healthy Societies conference, held just before the World Health Summit, where she shared the forward-thinking approach of JA PreventNCD in engaging youth voices across all areas of the project. She noted that meaningful youth involvement leads to exponentially increased impact and uptake, stressing that intergenerational dialogue is key to ensuring success at the policy level.
Kate Ndocko (left) speaking at the Youth Conference
Here are the ten key action points from the Youth Declaration:
- Access, equity, and inclusion for youth in education by removing barriers and designing education to reflect diverse healthcare needs for individuals and communities.
- Comprehensive national curricula on health, climate change, and digital literacy.
- Quality and adaptive education through flexible and responsive learning environments.
- Youth engagement and leadership in the design and implementation of health policies and programmes.
- Inclusive, accessible, and prevention-focused healthcare, including for young people from marginalized and vulnerable groups.
- Investment in young people to empower them to become leaders and drive solutions in health, climate change, and education.
- Brave spaces for healthy environments that protect young people from social and institutional barriers, and keep them safe from violence, harassment, and harmful practices.
- Inclusion of young people by governments, international and civil society organizations in co-creating policies on priority health needs.
- Valuing the experiences of young people, including their diversity and views, in the development and implementation of health policies.
- Greater support for grassroots youth organizations, as a means of investing in future generations.
The Youth Declaration is a call to involve youth as active participants in creating healthier societies. It acknowledges the power and insight young people bring to global health, and WHO encourages organizations and individuals to endorse the declaration through an endorsement form available on the Youth Declaration website hosted by the Bertelsmann Stiftung.
For more details, please see the original WHO article.
From The Youth Conference