“When you study history in high school, you learn about the origins of the United Nations, and it’s always been the organization I’ve been exposed to in terms of the values it promotes. However, I never thought I would have a direct role in the organization.
During my time working with the Uruguayan government, I had extensive contact with the United Nations system in the country, including agencies such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). We had quite a few initiatives in common, including a national project on issues related to the mental health and well-being of adolescents and young people. It was through these lines of cooperation that I began to understand how the UN works.
I was still studying a master’s degree in administration at the University of Florida when I ran to lead the first United Nations Youth Office. My goal was to help the organization maintain the best possible connection with young people, not only by listening to them but also by involving them in collaboration and participation. Eight months later, I received a call from Amina Mohamed, the Deputy Secretary General of the UN, telling me that I had been selected for this position and that I would start in 15 days!
The first year focused on understanding the challenges, building the team, identifying how to add value to the work of youth organizations and states, positioning the office as a space to raise awareness on various issues. I believe the purpose of the Youth Bureau is to collaborate, disseminate information and raise awareness of the interests and concerns of all young people around the world.
The three youth agendas of the United Nations Youth Office
Talking about the youth agenda means understanding and supporting a very broad movement that we approach from three central dimensions.
The first is the participation program. It is urgent that new generations be taken into account in decision-making spheres. We are linked to the various efforts being made to connect civil society with the United Nations, creating innovative scenarios in which young people feel represented, part of spaces of power, where their concerns are taken into account.
The second is the peace and security program. In the current global situation, with the highest number of active conflicts since World War II, we have seen young people taking the lead in promoting the peace agenda and demanding that governments end wars.
The third issue that stands out among the priorities is mental health and well-being. Millions of young people around the world face a silent crisis that affects every dimension of their lives: despair about the future; a digital culture marked by hate speech; lack of education, employment and housing opportunities; the climate crisis; and the absence of spaces for care and connection. All this generates anxiety, depression, and, in the most severe cases, loss of meaning and suicide.
This is why we are promoting a Global Initiative for Youth Mental Health and Well-being, which has already brought together in just a few months more than 600 youth-led organizations in more than 80 countries, reaching more than 13 million people (81% of whom are young people).
This initiative combines youth empowerment with links to international mental health networks and international organizations working in the field, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the United Nations agency for education, science and culture (UNESCO). At the same time, it advances policy advocacy so that more states recognize youth mental health as a priority and develop policies that address this urgent need.
Mental health in the age of social media
The focus is on how we interact with technology in a rapidly changing world. What can we do in a world where we are more interconnected than ever but at the same time much more isolated? This is the dichotomy we experience in our time. Social media poses a huge challenge because it ends up creating bubbles in which people only connect with other like-minded people.
The way these networks’ algorithms are designed often leads to more polarized discourse but also allows people to benefit from anonymity when spreading aggressive messages. Hence the need for more meeting spaces to promote dialogue between people, because in these digital spaces, dialogue does not exist; there are only positions, and people do not listen to each other; they confront each other.
When we look for answers, we will surely find them by returning to the Charter of the United Nations, which describes the essence of the organization: dialogue, the celebration of diversity and international cooperation. Young people are already doing their part. Small individual changes, when added together, are what ultimately determine global agendas.”
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