9 May 2012

Pacific youths debate post-MDG challenges

1:25 pm on 9 May 2012

Young people from around the region are debating what should happen after 2015 when the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals expires.

The eight goals include targets for eradicating poverty, promoting gender equality and combatting disease.

The UNDP and the University of the South Pacific have set up a series of debates over Pacific perspectives on what should happen next.

The UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Fiji, Toily Kurbanov, says there is also discussion on social networking sites.

"Looking forward ten years, fifteen years, down the road, it will be today's students, it will be today's youth in the position of decision making, who will be running their governments, the private sectors, the civil society, and who will be in a position to make choices and to make decisions that will improve to the betterment of their countries and their citizens. So the development agenda of the future has to be the agenda of today's youth."

The UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Fiji, Toily Kurbanov.