Annually, on 21st September, the world observes the International Day of Peace; a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace through observing twenty-four hours of non-violence and cease fire. In this year’s commemoration, UNESCO and UNFPA joined hands to celebrate the day and launched a partnership that will see both parties integrate young people into their organization’s mandate areas as they both have a focus on youth empowerment.
The 2021 theme “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world”, focused discussions globally on how to creatively and collectively recover from the COVID-19, building a more equitable, resilient and sustainable world in the process. Leveraging on this, discussions at the event, which was held at the Orange Loft on the UNFPA premises, centered around building back better with and for young people using innovative means. To this end, the UNESCO Country Representative, Mr. Abdourahamane Diallo, commended UNFPA Ghana for its exemplary initiative, the Youth Leaders Fellowship (YoLe) which does not only hone the skills of young people but makes them a central part of the conceptualization and delivery of UNFPA's programmes. He stated the Fellowship was a great way to build the capacity of young people and he expressed certainty that the partnership between both organisations will be of immense benefit to the youth.
The country representative of UNFPA Ghana Niyi Ojuolape, who also spoke at the event, said that he believes in the empowerment of young people. He was confident in the fact with the right skills, tools and knowledge, young people are capable of impacting society positively. Additionally, he stated that he believed the partnership will not just foster unity among both organizations, but it will be an avenue where the strengths of the organisations could be harnessed to transform the potential of young people.
To launch the partnership, both country representatives exchanged books, symbolizing the beginning of what is expected to be a great partnership
The event was attended by various stakeholders and implementing partners of UNFPA and UNESCO programmes as well as staff of the United Nations (UN) in Ghana.
