UNGA leaders call for education, jobs and skills to support young people

A growing young population can drive global prosperity only if countries provide education, skills, technology and decent employment, leaders have told the UN General Assembly, warning that artificial intelligence could widen inequality and increase anxiety about the future of work.

Zambian Foreign Minister Mulambo Hamakuni Haimbe said Africa’s rapidly expanding youth population represented an opportunity extending far beyond the continent.

“Africa’s youthful population is one of our greatest assets and represents an enormous opportunity for global prosperity,” he said.

By 2050, one in every four young people in the world would be African, Haimbe said.

Governments must provide them with quality education, relevant skills, access to technology, entrepreneurship opportunities and decent employment, he added.

Several countries connected employment with economic resilience and political stability.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono said resilience began with families being able to support themselves, farmers producing food, workers finding decent jobs and children having the opportunity to learn and build their futures.

“We are building an economy that can withstand shocks and create opportunities,” he said.

Mexico presented higher wages and investment in young people as essential parts of its development and security strategy.

Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco Álvarez said Mexico had combined education and employment programmes for young people with stronger institutions, intelligence and research.

“Peace cannot be decreed or imposed; it is built with social justice,” he said.

Velasco said Mexico’s minimum wage had increased by 154 per cent since 2018 and its citizens’ purchasing power was at its highest level in more than 40 years.

“Paying workers better does not make economies poorer. It actually strengthens them,” he said.

South Korea warned that rapid technological change could intensify young people’s uncertainty about employment and their economic future.

President Lee Jae Myung said the artificial-intelligence revolution risked deepening inequality and increasing anxiety among young people.

Seoul planned to create a Global AI Hub platform to make technological advances available to the wider international community, he said.

Singapore called artificial intelligence “the most urgent frontier” and urged countries to invest in science, infrastructure and skills.

Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said people must be equipped to understand and deploy emerging technologies.

“Human beings must remain in control and accountable,” he said.

India also presented AI as an opportunity for development while warning against its misuse.

China said artificial intelligence should be developed “for the positive and for good” and used to narrow the digital divide.

Jamaica warned that technological advances must not reproduce existing economic divisions.

“We must therefore not allow AI to deepen old inequalities and create an entirely new global divide,” Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith said.

She called for greater investment in digital infrastructure, skills and capacity in developing countries.

The speeches reflected concern that access to education alone would not guarantee a youth dividend. Young people would also require economies capable of creating productive work and technology policies that did not leave developing countries dependent on systems designed elsewhere.

India’s large working-age population gives it a major stake in this debate. Its economic prospects will depend partly on whether education and training can keep pace with technological change and whether growth produces enough productive employment for people entering the workforce.

“Except for the headline, no changes have been made to the story by Education Post staff.”