 Welcome to the Generation Connect podcast co-designed with Youth for Youth. The ITU Generation Connect initiative aims to engage global youth alongside the leaders of today's digital change by empowering youth voices in the digital development dialogue. Tune in every month to listen to inspiring stories of youth all across the world on the power of technology for sustainable development. Get involved by joining our global community of future leaders shaping the world of tomorrow. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Sophia Etzedek and I am a Generation Connect Youth Envoy. We are live here in Kigali Rwanda for the Generation Connect Global Youth Summit, the first one to ever happen. Hello, I'm Emanula from Kodiva. I'm a digital youth convoy and please could you introduce yourself? First of all, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am Ali Al-Tiblani. I am here representing Bahrain. I'm the Arab Regional Youth Group and I'm also the ambassador of the American University of Bahrain. Hi, I'm Simran Sahani and I'm from India. I'm the representative of Generation Connect Asia of Asia Pacific Region. Hello, I'm Franca. I'm 24 years old and I'm part of the European Generation Connect Youth Group. I'm a youth envoy from Europe for the ITU and I'm really, really excited to be here in Kigali from Germany to join the Generation Connect Youth Summit. How are you feeling today? I feel overwhelmed. It's been an amazing day meeting so many young people from around the globe. It's just something that you can't really absorb at first but it's really exciting to be here and so far it's been great. I'm feeling pretty excited, motivated, inspired actually after meeting all my gender champions fellow. After meeting so many people that are so motivated to make a change, especially in the digital world. I'm feeling very emotional to be honest. It's been two years working on this, working on Generation Connect. It's very, very nice to be able to see everyone in person after two years, you know, seeing everyone online. We got so used to that now it just feels so weird in person but feels good. You know, I like to say that every summer you have needs to be the summer of your life but being here feels like having the summer of my life. So far my experience has been nothing short of amazing. I've met so many changemakers and young people eager to change the world and their respective communities. What's your your goals for these three days? I'm here mainly to raise a bit of my voice, hopefully to contribute, to connect the unconnected which is the theme of this year and of course to broaden a bit my professional and personal skills. My goal for these few days is to make the most out of it. Obviously we're here because we have a chance to make a difference and us as youth we don't get this chance too often. So in these three days I will definitely try my best to make the most out of it and make as much difference as possible. I'm most excited or what I really, really hope will happen is that we will have the chance to influence the future of digital policy so I really hope that this will be impactful and that we as youth from so many countries can work together and bring in our perspective for youth perspective or perspective for future generations. Yeah so far it's good. I like it. One of my favorite sessions so far was in the recognition. I got to know a lot of people from different walks of life in different fields so it's been an amazing journey so far. Yeah Ronda is beautiful as well. I find it very the summit here very informative and educative for me personally and I really grateful that I'm here. I think the summit is a good opportunity for young people to connect, to share experiences, to share ideas, solutions and for us to realize that we're not very different from one another just because we're from different countries and from different backgrounds and cultures. As young people across the world we have a collective identity in that many of our challenges are the same and it's only up to us to come up with the solutions for those challenges. Can you please share your favorite moment of today's event? From yesterday one thing that stood out for me was the statement that the minister of youth and culture for Rwanda, Rwanda government stated that in order for us to be successful we have to first think about the people, think of the people and not to profit. My personal interest is about bridging the gender digital divide so making sure that you know we have more women in tech, more women in STEM because there is such a growing need for them to be included and to be part so that we make a smarter society so what you do would bring your kids together no matter the gender well that's very important. Unless the people are satisfied there will be no development happening but if the people are satisfied with the services you provide then you will see the fruit of it as well. The intergenerational talk that we had I think that was the best session that I attended for today. They talked a lot about how the youth can leverage opportunities and can leverage the support of the adults and the people who are representing the policy making process the government and different institutions. Yeah so far I've enjoyed every activities they've been having year I've made new connections I've learned a lot about youth and digital inclusion I'm looking forward to more sessions they are going to have a competition too and I'm looking forward to participate in it. I've certainly enjoyed networking people and like I literally made somebody with my name from another country entirely yes and I've enjoyed the conversation I've certainly enjoyed the experience and I'm actually looking forward to more sessions and I'm looking forward to networking with more people from and various youth from around the world basically. I felt very comfortable and I felt heard that there are people higher up the hierarchy there are more experienced adults that are there and value our voice value what the youth think and they are willing to listen they're willing to co-create and they're willing to take action from what we have to offer as well. I am here with Miss Heidi who is a super super important but also amazing individual I don't want to break the ice so I'm gonna let you introduce yourself. Well thank you very much for that very kind introduction I'm Hades Krederos-Pox and I work at the UN headquarters in New York and I head an office that looks after and supports the 91 most vulnerable countries in the world in groupings of least developed countries landlocked developing countries and small island developing states and we support them as much as we can on so many issues connectivity of course being one what we do at the global level is we really advocate to make sure that the issues and the priorities of the least developed countries are in the forefront of the agenda that the decision makers globally know what they can do to help the countries and we are there to build partnerships to make you know these kind of partnerships that can really support and help the least developed countries move forward in achieving the UN sustainable development goals. Thank you so much Miss Heidi I loved that you mentioned youth because that's why that's why we're here we're here for young people the inclusion of young people in decision making spaces during your session earlier I was listening with rapt attention and everything you said was amazing but I loved how you also highlighted the work that you're doing in Doha and just getting so many young people into spaces that matter and you mentioned how there's going to be a summit and you're sponsoring 92 young people which is a huge number you know a lot of organizations speak about youth inclusion but you know they never really just take that extra step and I am absolutely impressed astound and just happy that 92 young people from around the world are going to get that opportunity you know to physically be in a room of power and to just make changes happen and so I just want to ask you're doing all of this work for young people why do you think it is important it is really important to make sure that the the new ideas the power of the youth the enthusiasm uh comes to the table uh together with the the people who are there already now as decision makers governance is not made for older people yes governance should be included and I think it was one uh one participant that was saying that you know we need the ideas and the ways of thinking from the youth from the people who make this century and of course we need elders to guide us they have wisdom they have experience that's great but we should be much more embedded young people's voices matter because we make up about 50 percent of the global population in Africa specifically majority of our population up to 60 percent is young people so it would be almost irrational to have discussions to have decisions where young people's voices are not reflected or young people's sentiments are not reflected it would be abnormal considering we make up a large portion of our of our societies and populations so it's important for young voices to feature in those spaces so that we are able to make the right decisions that are inclusive of young people's realities Africa has the highest youth population in the world you have huge numbers of young people with great ideas they need to be involved as much as possible in shaping their future because you young people are the ones who will have to find the solutions to the problems that we have today so we need to make sure that you are engaged and Rwanda has been very active excellent host great to see participation from many many African countries so the the important part I think is the togetherness and being all together working finding solutions we will have to deal with the future that is not like the world we are living in right now we will have to deal with a lot of more challenges and just making us able to think outside the box and allowing us to think outside of structures that we are currently thinking in would really really help us one of the speakers talked about how huge the population of youth is and how advanced it is when it comes to digital technologies when it comes to experiences in in in digital literacy and I feel like that can be leveraged since we are living in a digital era and that experience that exposure I think can be leveraged a lot the best way is to do that to do that is by engaging with us and finding out the respective challenges and then giving us the respective tools that we need to thrive and go in the future youth has a lot to offer and already has a lot of knowledge regarding ICTs your voices your views they matter and you are the one who will inherit these issues and opportunities and challenges so you need to be part of finding those solutions I need to be part of that the voice of the youth matters quite simply because we are the future we know that there are other projects for the future ICT is developing very fast but we are the ones who are going to meet all these developments in the future so that's quite simply why our voice matters the most I would say what is that key message that you have for them be bold have courage don't be afraid don't be afraid what other people think about you don't be afraid to stand up have resilience go out there and explore ask questions hold people accountable and and really be part of the moment you are the present you are the future and step up use digital technologies and make a positive change that can help make the world we want don't wait for the future be present be hard today thank you for listening to our podcast you can find all the podcast episodes on the ITU Generation Connect website and if you don't want to miss an episode subscribe to us on SoundCloud Spotify and Apple podcast thanks again and see you next month for a brand new episode of the Generation Connect podcast so again thank you to all of you the youth here because this has been an extraordinary experience