Commonwealth Youth Demand That Leaders Stop Talking and Act

Attendees Of The Commonwealth Youth Forum 2015 (CHOGM). Photofrom CHOGM 2015 facebook Page

Attendees Of The Commonwealth Youth Forum 2015 (CHOGM). Photo from CHOGM 2015 Facebook Page

The youth of the 53 Commonwealth member countries are meeting in Malta just days before the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM), which takes place in Valletta from 27 to 29 November, 2015.

The forum, attended by over 200 young people between 18 and 29 years old, started on Saturday, November 22, 2015 and will end today, November 26, 2015.

The Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF) 2015 participants are expected to come up with solutions which they will present to the heads of states for action. Most of the participants are tired of policy makers and their leaders who discuss issues that are never implemented. A total of 60% of the Commonwealth population — an estimated 2.3 billion people — are under the age of 30.

#WhatNext is the main slogan of the forum and the hashtags #WhatNext and #CYF2015 are being used to share the proceedings of the forum.

The Commonwealth Youth Secretariat summarised the spirit of the youth forum on Twitter:

Despite conflicts and differences that have developed between nations in the world today, the Commonwealth youths have chosen friendship and working together, as pointed out by Mohammed Hoodh, a youth leader from the Maldives:

Maltese social worker and youth leader Bugeja Georvin called for investment towards youth ideas:

Mmanti Umoh, who works with the Nigeria-based future leadership organisation Global Shapers UYO, wrote:

Supporting the youth forum, Marie-Louise Coleiro, the president of host country Malta expressed her trust in the young people:

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