Too often, young people are invited to share experiences after decisions have already been made. Yet our experiences are evidence of what works, what does not, and what systems need to change. Listening matters, but it is only the beginning. What truly matters is whether our perspectives shape priorities, inform decisions, direct resources, and strengthen accountability.
We are already creating jobs, strengthening communities, expanding inclusion, and solving problems that affect millions of lives. We are asking to help shape the decisions, investments, and institutions that determine whether those solutions can grow.
Our stories are different, but they point to the same truth: when young people are trusted and given meaningful influence, they help lead change and make systems more relevant, inclusive, and accountable.
Today, we stand together, united by one belief: that every young person’s voice matters. As we share this stage, we amplify the hopes, ideas, and lived experiences of young people, reminding the world that meaningful change begins when youth are not just heard, but trusted to lead.
Trust the Leaders Closest to the Problem
In Kenya, Mama Mboga refers to women vendors who sell fresh vegetables and everyday foods in local markets and neighbourhood stalls. Many institutions still overlook them because they operate outside formal systems. Yet they understand customers, supply chains, pricing, and risk through years of lived experience. Their knowledge keeps neighborhoods fed and local economies moving.
Today, Soko Kijiji supports more than 3,200 active traders, most of them women. The next 3,200 are already out there, building businesses with grit and deep market knowledge. What they need is not another training module, but capital, trust, and recognition that lived expertise is genuine due diligence.
Our call to action: Stop treating informal expertise as something to fix. Invest in the leaders who have already built trusted businesses and have proven what works. When institutions trust that leadership, the return is stronger livelihoods, stronger markets, and stronger economies.
Opportunity Changes Everything
My leadership journey began during one of the most difficult periods of my life.
As a young mother, I faced hardship with no stable income, no dignified work, little confidence, and limited knowledge of business or advocacy. Many people saw my circumstances before they saw my potential.
Everything changed when I joined the MegoMakwiny Community Restorative Group and later the African Youth Panel. For the first time, I stopped seeing myself through the barriers I faced and started seeing myself as someone who could lead change in my community. Through mentorship, skills training, encouragement, and community support, I rebuilt my confidence, started businesses, developed leadership skills, and found my voice.
Today, I work with PACMECS SACCO LTD to promote financial inclusion and economic empowerment for women entrepreneurs in the informal sector in my community. I run small businesses producing nutritious foods and detergents, and I mentor young mothers and youth in entrepreneurship, value addition, financial literacy, and leadership. Through BulloMaluwiny youth groups, I help create safe spaces where young people can learn, support one another, and build confidence in their futures.
My experience taught me that many young people, especially young mothers, are not lacking ideas or potential. They are judged by their circumstances instead of being supported to rebuild their lives.
My call to action: Believe in young people and invest in our potential. Create more opportunities for youth leadership, entrepreneurship, mentorship, access to finance, and representation where decisions are made, with dedicated budgets that make participation, training, and business growth possible.
Skills Must Lead Somewhere
I have spent years working with talented, motivated young people who still lose hope because pathways to opportunity remain out of reach.
I was part of the Indigenous Apprenticeship to Work Programme, implemented by the youth-led NerdzFactory Company and Research Links through the Mastercard Foundation Employee Innovation Fund in partnership with Digital Opportunity Trust.
As CEO of Noble Catering and Party Consultant, I train young people, especially young women, in catering, baking, entrepreneurship, food safety, event management, and business development. My own journey began when I learned catering as a child and later realized how many young people lacked practical skills and opportunities. That experience taught me that opportunity often starts with someone believing in your potential before you believe in it yourself.
Training matters, but skills alone are not enough. Too often, young people complete training programs only to discover that the path to opportunity remains out of reach – there's no access to startup capital, equipment, mentorship, markets, or support systems to help them move forward.
My call to action: Stop treating training as the finish line. Connect training to mentorship, startup funding, resources, networks, and markets so that skills become businesses, businesses create jobs, and young people can build lasting livelihoods.
Inclusion Cannot Be An Afterthought
Walking across my university campus on crutches during the rainy season taught me that many barriers are not created by disability. They are created by environments that were never designed with us in mind. As a university student, I experienced accessibility barriers firsthand, especially during the rainy season, which showed me that exclusion is often built into the systems around us.
Despite these challenges, I graduated with Great Distinction (CGPA 3.73). This achievement reinforced my belief that disability does not define a person's potential.
Today, I advocate for accessible education and the meaningful participation of young people with disabilities. I want every young person with a disability to be heard, valued, and included from the very beginning.
My call to action: See young people with disabilities as partners, not as people who need support. Design inclusion from the beginning, build accessible systems, and ensure young people with disabilities influence decisions that affect our lives.
Our Collective Call
We come from different countries, backgrounds, sectors, and communities, but we are united by a common aspiration: to be trusted as partners in shaping the decisions, investments, and systems that affect our lives and futures. Young people are creating jobs, strengthening communities, expanding inclusion, improving livelihoods, and responding to systemic challenges that institutions often struggle to address.
We are asking for more than a seat in the room. Trust us with decisions. Invest in our ideas. Build systems we can access. Give us opportunities to lead alongside those who shape policy, finance, education, and employment. Deepening youth partnerships means moving beyond listening and sharing power with the generation already building Africa’s future.
International Youth Day
Celebrating young people who are actively shaping the future through policy, thought leadership, entrepreneurship, and community innovation.
