Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to uphold the commitment it made at the 9th Commonwealth Youth Ministers meeting outlined in point 2 of the Final Communiqué to ensure that young people play a central role in achieving inclusive and sustainable development and in helping the global community to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

DFID supports the principle of providing young people with a genuine say in shaping a positive future for their countries. This was illustrated most recently at the 2017 Family Planning summit, which had a Youth Panel that helped set the agenda.

We are also working directly with 5-18 year olds in the UK through our Development Education programme, investing in a new generation of Global Britain ambassadors, proud of the work the UK is doing to tackle global poverty, and better prepared to live and eventually work in a globalised economy. Through the government’s International Citizen Service programme DFID has enabled over 25,000 young volunteers from the UK and developing countries to work on projects tackling poverty in developing countries.