The World Conference on Youth will take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 6-10 May 2014 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Bringing together some 1500 participants, half of whom will be young people aged 18 to 29 and with 350 of them coming from marginalized backgrounds, the conference is seen as one of the most well represented youth events at the global level. Its focus will be on 'mainstreaming Youth in the Post-2015 Development Agenda'. It will produce a joint outcome document between states and young people called the Colombo Action Plan. It will be important for young people to be able to influence the shaping of the outcome, which will serve as an input into the Secretary General’s post-2015 Synthesis Report.

The conference has seven key foundation and seven thematic areas, including Youth Rights, Gender Equality and Promoting Healthy Lives and Access to Health. The zero draft for the Colombo Action Plan for the conference, released earlier this month, is inadequate in addressing issues as they affect young people such as gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights and human rights. Organizations should therefore work ensure that comments from civil society and youth organizations, as well as those from Governments are adequately reflected in the final joint statement.

The timing of the World Youth Conference and its mandate of mainstreaming youth in the post-2015 development agenda make it an important event in the process for the development of the post-2015 development agenda, The outcome will be a major input to the Secretary General’s Post-2015 Synthesis Report.

For further information go to WCY2014.com