UNDP’s first Youth Global Programme for Sustainable Development and Peace – Youth-GPS (2016-2020), is a 5-year global programmatic offer on youth empowerment, designed to sharpen the organization’s response to the challenges young people face worldwide, boost the implementation of UNDP’s Youth Strategy 2014-2017, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security.

Young people still face a serious array of development challenges, and their needs and aspirations are regularly overlooked. They are often victims of multiple and interlocked forms of discrimination and face significant barriers to full participation in public life – having adverse impacts on the economy, politics, peace and development at large. How this cohort of young people is supported and engaged will significantly determine the prospects of sustainable development and peace in the coming years.

Youth-GPS is a systematic response to the concerns young people have expressed in global, regional and national fora and the growing demand at all levels for cutting-edge and strategic support in youth programming in all development contexts.