Council calls for grassroots support for safer societies

The World Health Organization (WHO) Youth Council has called for greater support for grassroots organisations as a means to invest in future generations.

The declaration was made during the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany after a three-day meeting to generate ideas for collaboration, action and future work, geared towards empowering youth to play a central role in creating healthier and safer societies.

Established in 2023, the WHO Youth Council members are representatives of health and non-health organisations and movements, aimed at amplifying the voices and experiences of young people, as well as leveraging their expertise, energy, and ideas to promote public health.

The council serves as a platform for designing and incubating new initiatives, as well as for expanding existing youth engagement initiatives while advising and actively engaging with the WHO Director-General and WHO senior leadership to ensure health policies and programmes reflect the expertise, innovation and needs of young people around the world.

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said the WHO is committed to amplifying the voices of young people to realise the shared vision of health for all. He added that the declaration on creating healthy societies can be achieved when the youths are actively engaged in shaping their health and futures.

A WHO Youth Council Member from the Act4Food campaign of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Rehman Hassan, noted that youths can no longer afford to squander the advice, skills, and energy in transforming their communities, policies and the planet at large.

“It is high time we engage them and incorporate their solutions for a healthier way forward. The youth council and its constituent organisations, working with WHO, is committed to charting this healthier course for the present and future,” he said.

Another member, Kate Ndocko said the declaration represents the collective commitment and priorities to help communities, especially youth, at local, regional and global levels, to be healthier and more resilient in the face of the many health challenges the world faces today, as well as the ones ahead.