On 28th March 2022, Pema Wangmo Lama Mugum, a 22-year-old indigenous youth from the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal, delivered an oral intervention on behalf of the youth constituency at the APFSD Intergovernmental Fora. Watch a video of the intervention.
Respected dignitaries, Member States and delegates.
I am Pema Wangmo Lama Mugum, an Indigenous Youth belonging to the Mugum Indigenous Community from Nepal and bring to you the voices of 600 and more young people, from 33 countries across Asia and the Pacific, coming from a range of backgrounds in terms of our age, race, disability, geographical location, socio-economic status, sexual and gender identities, expression and characteristics, among others.
We came into the youth forum with our experiences derived from our lived-in realities We engaged in cross-country and intraregional exchanges, learning and sharing, and the review of the SDG progress to put forward our unified voice and demands into this “Youth Call to Action”.
There is no building back better from COVID-19 without us!
We are the young people who have not been prioritised for COVID-19 vaccine access, and are also facing the effects of climate change, environmental degradation, lack of access to education and essential health services, war, migration, natural disasters, and rising inequalities and discrimination – directly affecting our lives and our future.
Climate change and natural disasters have created more economic constraints for families, which in turn created an increase in the risk of gender-based sexual violence, and even early and forced child marriage.
We urge the Member States in the region to:
Implement policies to reduce the digital gap and recover from learning losses whilst addressing the learning crises and improving digital learning opportunities, ensuring digital security including privacy and confidentiality of young people in all their diversity.
Mainstream Comprehensive Sexuality Education for in school and out of school students and integrate CSE and the Sustainable Development Goals in school curricula.
Remove discriminatory laws, regulations and policies, and eradicate harmful practices such as early and forced child marriage, Chhaupadi and Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting on an urgent basis.
Strengthen meaningful and inclusive youth involvement in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) commitments, its implementation and carbon neutrality pledges, and increase youth and locally led green investments and funding to match the targets prioritising indigenous and marginalised communities.
Allocate budget and set priorities to uplift youth-led organisations and the inclusivity of the young people across decision making processes at all levels, across all sustainable development goals.
Increase investments in generating disaggregated data in regards to the education system, drop-outs as well, across SDGs.
COVID-19, now going into its third year, has severely impacted the progress across youth sustainable development and we call for PRIORITY ACTION NOW!
Thank you.
