Refugees voice at UN forum

BY STEVE EPHRAEM

NEW YORK: From April 15-17, 2025, BARTHELEMY Mwanza, who is a member of the Global Refugee Youth Network, attended the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States of America (USA). The forum, brought together young leaders from around the world to discuss pressing global issues and develop solutions.

As a refugee youth leader, Mwanza has extensive experience advocating for the rights and needs of young refugees. Before migrating to the USA, he led over 5,000 young refugees in Tongogara Refugee Settlement in Zimbabwe and served on the UNHCR Global Youth Advisory Council.

Today, his network supports four refugee youth-led organisations in Tongogara, including Transformation Innovation Hub, Assorted Energy, Refugee Coalition for Climate Action, and TRS Fitness Club.

Speaking this reporter from New York, Mwanza said that he attended forum to prepare key messages for advocacy and to emphasise the need for flexible and long-term funding to support refugee youth-led organisations.

“My focus was on networking, learning about the ECOSOC Youth Forum, supporting each other in preparing key messages for advocacy, meeting with youth climate leaders and sharing views and concerns as well as galvanize actions and recommendations to transform the world into a fairer, greener and more sustainable place led by the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“As youth, we need support to design and run projects independently. This will enable us to respond to the needs of our communities and advocate for the changes we feel are important. By supporting refugee youth-led organisations, we can empower young people to take charge of their own development and create positive change in their communities,” he said.