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1. Main concepts

2. Youth interest in global issues

Main concepts

The National Youth Strategy (Εθνική στρατηγική για τη νεολαία 2017-2022), developed and published by the Youth Board of Cyprus (YBC), has as main target to reinforce the role of young people in the democratic process in Cyprus. Therefore, some of the main action fields of the National Strategy are participation, representation, and social inclusion of young people. The policy document in its relevant chapter “Youth and the world” sets as priorities key topics from the global agenda, such as the climate change, the human rights and the UN Millennium Development Goals. More specifically the goals of the field of action are:

Target 1: Creation and exploitation of mobility opportunities.

Target 2: Development of a global and ecological consciousness and culture.

The National Youth Strategy priorities for achieving the above targets are the following:

1. Increase youth participation in international networks and improve the cooperation among organisations within the EU and beyond.
2. Make the most out of exchange programmes (education, training, exchange of ideas).
3. Enhance access to information and empowerment for capitalising on youth mobility programmes (e.g., Erasmus+).
4. Facilitate youth participation in mobility programmes.
5. Create more opportunities for education and training on issues related to modern societies (e.g., human rights, refugee issue, environmental topics, climate change, sustainable development).
6. Create opportunities for coexistence and cooperation among different nationalities, communities and religions.
7. Implement further measures for enhancing sustainable development in the country.

Youth interest in global issues

The findings of the quantitative survey report  ‘Youth Barometer 3’ (Νέο-Βαρόμετρο), which were released in September 2021 by the IMR/University of Nicosia on behalf of the YBC, show that 32% of the participants are seriously concerned about social inequality in society, such as the existence of social stereotypes and prejudices. However, no concerns were expressed in topics related to the environment, sustainable development, climate change, green patterns of consumption and production since most of their concerns were related to the consequences of the pandemic.  In addition, only 3% of the participants mentioned that the state should develop environmental activities/events which aim at young people’s development. Last, an established perception among most of the youth (97% of the participants), is that people should continue to be educated throughout their lives and take advantage of opportunities given to them for furthering their education.

Since 2017, the Youth Board of Cyprus funds annually the implementation of the programme “Parliament of Young Representatives” (Βουλή των Νέων Αντιπροσώπων) that provides opportunities to young people’s active participation in national, European and global-related issues, by involving young people in the policy making process. During the annual Parliament of young representatives between 2016 and 2022, some of the main topics in final policy proposals of the Committees (Εκθέσεις Κοινοβουλευτικών Επιτροπών) included recommendations for global related issues like education’s improvements and employment, gender equality in the workplace, environmental and green policies, etc.