Youth Global Programme for Sustainable Development and Peace | Youth-GPS 2016-2020
The Youth Global Programme for Sustainable Development and Peace (“Youth-GPS,” 2016-2020) is UNDP’s first global programmatic offer for youth empowerment for sustainable development and peace. The project aims to systematically foster youth empowerment where UNDP has a presence by significantly boosting the implementation of UNDP's Youth Strategy 2014-2017 (itself aligned with UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2014-2017) and to sharpen the organization’s focus and corporate response to the challenges young people face worldwide across three priority thematic areas: enhanced youth civic engagement and participation in decision making and political processes and institutions; increased economic empowerment of youth; and strengthened youth engagement in resilience- and peace-building. A key priority for the project will be to deploy systematic and coordinated action to support the role of young people as active agents of change and partners in SDG implementation, monitoring and accountability as well as the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on youth, peace and security and related international agreements. The project simultaneously aims to strengthen UNDP’s overall accountability and commitment to youth. UNDP has developed Youth-GPS as a systematic response to the growing demands at all levels from stakeholders, especially young people, for strategic support and guidance for youth programming that is at once comprehensive and adaptable to specific regional and national realities. As such, the project leverages UNDP’s distinctive added value within the multi-lateral system, its strong partnerships with UN and external partners on youth issues and its strengths as a decentralized operational organization in order to effectively foster youth empowerment and to advance the role of young people as positive agents of change and partners for sustainable development and peace. Using a multi-level and multi-dimensional approach, Youth-GPS will:
• Increase national and local partners’ capacities to enhance youth empowerment;
• Strengthen regional capacities for youth empowerment;
• Enhance strategic global policy and advocacy for youth empowerment;
• Promote and support young women’s empowerment at all levels.