PRME & HE4G Summit of the Future Official Side Event: Elevating Youth Voices

In 2015, the global community adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a target year of 2030. However, we have stalled or gone into reverse on some 37 percent of the global goals. There is an urgent need to get the goals back on track or we risk irreparable harm to global progress.

Given that the private sector is one of the key drivers in global development, engagement with businesses is crucial to accelerate action on the SDGs. However, 96% of chief academic officers at higher education institutions believe that they are preparing young people well for the workforce, while only 41% of university students and 11% of business leaders share that same view. In addition, 76% of tomorrow’s young leaders believe the older generation ignores their vital interests, and 50% of senior leaders agree. The last decade has been primarily marked by disagreements between generations on a growing number of subjects: environmental protections, globalization, new technologies and their impact, social protections, labor conditions, and the growth of income inequality. To find solutions to the world’s most urgent problems, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and health and migration crises, it is imperative to learn to listen to each other, restore dialogue, and better collaborate to meet these challenges.

The UN Global Compact is the principal UN entity overseeing private sector engagement in achieving the SDGs and beyond, and UNGC’s education initiative, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), leads efforts in preparing future leaders for responsible leadership. In collaboration with PRME, the Higher Education for Good (HE4G) Foundation launched Youth Talks, the largest-ever global consultation inviting people aged 15-29 to share their opinions, concerns and aspirations for the future. This first edition received approximately 1,000,000 contributions from more than 45,000 young people in 212 countries and territories, and researchers from the PRME community have teamed up to analyze the results.

Accordingly, the Summit of the Future - a once-in-a-generation opportunity to elevate the voice of youth in the multilateral system - will be held 20-24 September 2024. To capitalize on the important occasion, PRME together with HE4G will hold a side-event (to the Summit of the Future) entitled “Elevating Youth Voices: Shaping Responsible Leadership for a Sustainable Future” to present a preliminary analysis of the Youth Talks data, providing insights on the sustainability mindsets of youth, the values youth deem important for future careers, and how technology can impact their mental health and well-being. The insights are useful for educators, policy-makers, UN officials, the private sector, and more focused on transforming higher education to develop responsible leaders.

The objective of the side event is to elevate youth voices, share data insights, bridge the generational gap, and promote leadership education.