NB! Views and opinions expressed in this public consultation belong solely to the contributor, and do not represent those of the United Nations nor the International Telecommunication Union.

What do you think ITU should be doing with and for young people? Below are some proposals – comment or propose you own.

1 that ITU continue to engage with young audiences in outreach, through communications, capacity building and research, from the perspectives of digital inclusion, innovation, entrepreneurship and skills development, in order to provide tools for self-empowerment of young people and their satisfactory participation in the digital economy and all aspects of society;y;

2 that ITU activities with youth be used to strengthen the value proposition for Academia, such as through creating synergies between Academic Members and the ITU Telecom Young Innovators Competition, with emphasis on young scholars, to increase the attractiveness of engaging with, and being a member of, the Union;n;

3 that future engagement with young people should take place through recognized national or grassroots structures, such as official delegations or ITU Academia, through digital literacy and entrepreneurial capacity building, and through competitive processes such as the Young Innovators Competition, in order to provide legitimacy for youth participation in ITU activities;s;

4 that ITU shall commit to regular monitoring, reporting and research on the uptake and use of ICTs by young people, including the provision of disaggregated data by gender and information on behavioural aspects that may be harmful and dangerous,s,

Below are some suggestions on what ITU senior leadership can do to advance these objectives. What do you think? Comment or propose your own

1 to deploy sufficient staff and financial resources to develop and maintain effective youth engagement across the Union, within budgetary constraints;s;

2 to ensure coordination of ITU activities so as to avoid duplication and overlap;p;

3 to strengthening the role of Academia within the structures of the Union, by increasing the value proposition for academic institutions and increasing visibility and prestige for young contributing scholars, such as through recognition in ITU publications;s;

4 to maintain the ITU TELECOM Young Innovators Competition on a yearly basis, and ensure that sufficient expertise and resources are allocated to working with winning ICT innovations in order to provide mentorship, capacity building and sufficient exposure at national and international levels,s,

5 to continue activities on promoting ICTs among young women and men for social and economic empowerment;t;

6 to continue activities related to monitoring, reporting and research on statistics and indicators related to young people’s uptake and use of ICT, including the provision of disaggregated data by gender and information on behavioural aspects that may be harmful and dangerous;s;

7 to continue to explore ways and means of involving young engineers/ICT researchers in the specialist, nuanced work of the Bureaus;s;

What can ITU Member States do to advance these objectives? Below are some suggestions – comment or propose your own.

1 to actively seek means of including young people in ITU events and national delegations through, for example, more active engagement with national academic institutions and youth-led, civil society organizations;s;

2 to explore policies and mechanisms to increase transparency and make it easier for young people to engage with and influence the process of national and international ICT policy-making;g;

3 to strengthening the role and function of Academia within the structures of the Union, through for example, their participation in national delegations and encouraging/facilitating new Academic Members;s;

What can ITU’s private sector and academic members to do to advance these objectives? Below are some suggestions – comment or propose your own.

1 to support, where possible, the necessary structures for effective engagement with young people, through, for example, access to information and fellowships for meaningful participation in ITU activities;s;

2 to support networks of young people through community based innovation hubs, mobile app competitions, hackathons and maker spaces to create solutions for local development challenges and to provide input to ITU activities;s;

3 to continue to explore new and innovative business models to connect the unconnected and improve ICT access for young people;e;

4 to promote education in the field of ICT for young people and especially for young women.n.