WHO Youth Council releases bold call for a healthier world

The WHO Youth Council has launched its first Youth Declaration on Creating Healthy Societies, with a range of calls to action informed and developed by young people from around the world and geared towards empowering youth to play a central role in creating healthier and safer societies for all.

“The WHO Youth Council is proud to be issuing its first Youth Declaration on Creating Healthy Societies,” said Kate Ndocko, WHO Youth Council member. “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 the ones ahead.”

The Declaration was launched today during the World Health Summit taking place in Berlin. It outlines 10 calls for action that place youth at the centre of co-creating healthier societies globally, and explaining what is needed for this to succeed. The calls to action ensure:

• Access, equity and inclusion for youth in education by removing barriers and designed 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 the areas of health, climate change and education.
• Brave spaces for healthy environments are created that protect young people from social and institutional barriers, and keep them safe from violence, harassment and other harmful practices.
• Inclusion of young people by governments, international and civil society organizations to co-create policies on priority health needs.
• Valuing the experiences of young people, including their diversity and views, in the development and implementation of health polices.
• Greater support for grassroots youth organizations as a means to investing in future generations.

“WHO is committed to amplifying the voices of young people to realise our shared vision of health for all,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The Youth Declaration on Creating Healthy Societies, issued by the WHO Youth Council, does just that, channelling the ideas, advice and action of youth into a powerful call for change, and showing what can be achieved when youth are actively engaged in shaping their health and futures.”

Rehman Hassan, a WHO Youth Council Member from the Act4Food campaign of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), said: “We can no longer afford to squander the advice, skills, and energy of young people in transforming our communities, policies and the planet at large. Pandemics and epidemics, conflicts, the spread of misinformation, and the health risk posed by climate change, amongst other issues, are threatening the health and well-being of billions of people. Young people are the most underrepresented group in governance, yet half of the world’s population is aged under 30. It is high time we engage them and incorporate their solutions for a healthier way forward. The Youth Council and its constituent organizations, working with WHO, is committed to charting this healthier course for the present and future.”

The WHO Youth Council was established in 2023 and is a dynamic network aimed at amplifying the voices and experiences of young people and leveraging their expertise, energy, and ideas to promote public health. The Youth Council’s members are youth representatives of health and non-health organizations and movements. They advise and actively engage with the WHO Director-General and WHO senior leadership on ensuring health policies and programmes reflect the expertise, innovation and needs of young people around the world. The WHO Youth Council also serves as a platform for designing and incubating new initiatives and for expanding existing youth engagement initiatives of WHO. 

Editor’s notes

The following organizations are represented on the WHO Youth Council: Act4Food, a campaign of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN); Africa Public Health Students Network Initiative (AfricaPHSN); Climate Cardinals; Commonwealth Youth Health Network (CYHN) – Commonwealth Secretariat; Digital Transformations for Health Lab (DTH-Lab); European Network of Medical Residents in Public Health (EuroNet MRPH); Grassroot Soccer; Healthy Caribbean Coalition/Healthy Caribbean Youth; Innovation for Health Equity in Africa; International Federation of Medical Students’ Association (IFMSA); International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF); International Student One Health Alliance (ISOHA); International Student Surgical Network (InciSioN); International Youth Alliance for Family Planning; International Youth Health Organization; Orygen; The International LGBTQI Youth & Student Organisation (IGLYO); UN Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY); Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM); World Medical Association Junior Doctors Network (WMA JDN); World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM); Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network; Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP); Youth Alliance (a branch from the Healthy Latin America Coalition -CLAS-); and Youth and Environment Europe.

While in Berlin, the WHO Youth Council held an intensive three-day event, facilitated and supported by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, to generate ideas for collaboration, action and future work. During the meetings, new members of the Council were announced from a range of bodies.

The Bertelsmann Stiftung is committed to ensuring that everyone can participate in society – politically, economically and culturally. Its topics are education, democracy, Europe, health, values and the economy. In doing so, it puts people at the center of its efforts. Because it is people who can move, change and make the world a better place. To this end, we tap knowledge, impart skills and develop solutions. The Bertelsmann Stiftung was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn.