On a summer day in 2019, Zoe Rimba was standing in front of the UNICEF Headquarters in New York as a graduate. She had just completed her studies in international and community development, and was about to return to Indonesia. At that very moment, a thought crossed her mind. What a great honour and privilege it would be to work for the cause of children across the globe!

I joined UNHCR Kenya as a UN Volunteer in June 2018 and have just concluded my volunteer assignment. During this period, I worked closely with my colleagues at UNHCR Kenya in promoting sustainable cities and communities. Our aim has been to help and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.

Indonesia is a vast country with more than 17,000 islands. This geography makes for considerable logistical challenges for the COVID-19 recovery.

UN Volunteer Saleh Nasser, serves as an Adolescent and Youth Associate with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Jordan. He supports skills development programmes that place youth with community and business leaders who represent role models. Such programmes help to foster connections across generations through the transfer of knowledge, while equipping youth with tools for success in their future career paths.

Salomé Jacquet (France) is a UN Volunteer Local Development Specialist serving with the UN Development Programme (UNDP). She supports a project focused on supporting decentralization, governance and local development as a means of improving the living conditions of beneficiary communities. Since 2019, she has been serving as the project’s focal point for youth-related aspects.

To promote intergenerational solidarity, two UN Volunteers serving with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Kenya met during a training session organized by the UNV Kenya Office.

I serve with the UN Environment and Climate Security Advisor to Somalia, whose position is under the UN Environment Programme, but who is seconded to the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM). This way, I have the unique opportunity to serve with two agencies. With the Climate Security Advisor, our overarching goal is to assist Somali communities in becoming resilient to increasingly recurrent and frequent climatic shocks, while also mitigating possible climate-related conflicts.

Yasmine Diawara Affoue, David Roland (both from Côte d'Ivoire) and Samba Kante (Guinea) are all UN Volunteers who are passionate about advocating for young people. They provide their expertise to youth and women-focused programmes of UN agencies such as the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Oshan Gunathilake is a national UN Volunteer Specialist serving as Volunteer Management and Community Engagement Specialist with the project Youth Participation and Engagement for a Healthier, Equitable, Safer and United Sri Lanka. 

The African Development Bank reports that while 10 million to 12 million youth enter the workforce in Africa each year, only 3 million formal jobs are created annually.