Young people leading COVID-19 response and recovery efforts

An estimated 1.2 billion young people have been impacted by the negative effects of the pandemic. COVID-19 response measures, while necessary, have exacerbated disruptions to education and youth employment opportunities, access to services and social support, and added to an increase in gender-based violence cases.

To tackle some of these challenges affecting young people, last year the World Organization of the Scout Movement, together with other members of the Big 6 Youth Organizations, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Foundation, launched a Global Youth Mobilization to invest in and scale up youth-led solutions and engagements to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its first year of operation, the Global Youth Mobilization has now invested more than $600,000 to support the implementation of 183 youth-led projects in 41 countries and funded an additional 74 national projects in 56 countries with $1.2 million across the Big 6 Youth Organizations to date. Together these efforts have directly engaged nearly 200,000 young people to develop and implement activities supporting over 800,000 community beneficiaries.

The Global Youth Mobilization has focused on scaling up interventions and impact across four key themes:

  • Overcoming the impacts on mental and physical health challenges caused by lockdowns by providing training programmes, recreational spaces, and access to professional support by supporting over 20,000 young people
  • Engaging 52,000 peers in their communities to overcome gender inequality and combat domestic and gender-based violence worsened by lockdowns. 
  • Implementing youth-led solutions to help over 480,000 people overcome education disruption and employability challenges caused by lockdowns through training, coaching, and providing access to key resources such as books and digital devices.
  • Supporting young people to become key figures in their communities, supporting with COVID-19 prevention measures by distributing masks and debunking myths about the virus and vaccines, helping over 300,000 people.

These an other impacts highlighting the investment in young people globally are captured in the a new report published by the Global Youth Mobilization entitled Powering Change: Young People Leading the COVID-19 Response and Recovery.

The report represents an important milestone for the collaboration between the Big 6 Youth Organizations and is the first operational partnership at a global scale between the six world-leading youth-focused organisations. It also demonstrates the power of youth-led, collective decision-making and the importance of implementing new and accessible funding opportunities for youth development.

“WHO is proud to support the global movement to engage and empower young people as a driving force in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with the Big 6 Youth Organizations and the United Nations Foundation has provided a unique opportunity to learn from millions of young people and be guided by their enthusiasm and ideas to help communities build back better,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization, Director-General.

“What the Big 6 have achieved in a year through launching and implementing the Global Youth Mobilization is phenomenal and unparalleled in the youth development sector. We look forward to continuing our support and encourage other partners to join the mobilization and invest in the health and well-being of future generations.”

The report, which includes case studies of global youth-led projects, also highlights a series of policy recommendations for multinational agencies and institutions, governments, policymakers and corporations to address and prioritise the needs of young people and future generations.

You can read the full report and executive summary on the Global Youth Mobilization website.

About the Global Youth Mobilization

The Global Youth Mobilization (GYM), launched in December 2020, is a movement of young people taking action to improve their lives and their communities now and in a post-COVID-19 world.

Powered by the Big 6 – the world’s largest global youth organisations – and supported by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Foundation, the GYM aims to harness this momentum to address the negative impact of the pandemic on young people and support them to build back better.

With support from the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, the Global Youth Mobilization is supporting and scaling-up youth-led solutions, reinventing funding models and re-energising youth engagement programmes across the world.

About World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM)

Scouting is the world’s leading educational youth movement, engaging millions of young people to be active citizens and create positive change in their communities. The World Scout Movement is made up of more than 57 million Scouts connected together through a membership network of 172 National Scout Organizations. 

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