On 25 September 2025, Sierra Leone, through Hon. Ibrahim Sannoh, Minister of Youth Affairs, stood at the helm of history, co-chairing the UN’s commemoration of 30 years of the World Programme of Action for Youth, alongside H.E. Dr. Terrance M. Drew, Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis. From the floor of the General Assembly, the message was unambiguous: the future of multilateralism will be judged by how it treats its youngest citizens.

Minister Sannoh reminded the world that in Sierra Leone, where over 70% of the population is under 35, inclusion cannot be ceremonial. It must mean seats at the table, financing that reaches youth directly, policies that confront climate change and digital divides, and structures that make youth co-authors, not footnotes, of the decisions that will shape their lives. Anything less is a betrayal of the next generation.

Closing the session, Sierra Leone spoke truth to power: frameworks without financing, offices without authority, and anniversaries without accountability do not change lives. The next 30 years of WPAY must be marked not by promises but by delivery, where young people everywhere move from the margins of rhetoric to the center of action. Only then will the UN truly embody universality, and only then will peace be worthy of its name.

Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Friday, 3rd October 2025 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)