Youth and World Governance

Albert Einstein was only 25 years old when he wrote his famous theory of relativity. Gandhi was about 25 years old when he helped to found the Natal Indian Congress, which molded the Indian community of South Africa into a homogeneous political force before he moved on to fight for the freedom of India. Che Guevara was about 28 years old when he joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary movement for the freedom of Cuba. Nelson Mandela was about 30 years old when as a leader he was spearheading the fight against the Apartheid policy of racial segregation.

The Millennium Declaration set 2015 as the target date for achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but less than six years away, the progress toward these goals is threatened due to the present convergence of crises: economic crisis, climate change and other factors involving the UN Member States.

An assessment of the completion so far of the MDGs could raise doubts regarding what we have achieved in terms of reality on the ground. In the book, "The End of Poverty", Jeffery Sachs, the author, shows through his study and analysis how the present generation can end poverty by 2025. Somehow, he fails to mention in his book that it will be up to today's youth to play the key role in this effort.

We need to do something about these concerns, but now is when we need to do so! Youth today see themselves as the "Agents of Change", and inspired by Gandhi, who said, “You must be the change you want to see in this world,” they are ready to take action.

This paper is an attempt to look at the perspective of youth (the term "youth" generally applies to those persons between the ages 15 and 30 in this paper) on world governance and their active role in world governance.