In April 2026, with the support of UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), I had the opportunity to represent #Youth4Disarmament at this year’s ECOSOC Youth Forum under the theme “Innovate, Unite and Transform: Youth Shaping the Road to 2030.” While moving between panels, side events, and informal conversations, one insight kept resurfacing for me: economic opportunities for young people cannot be separated from questions of peace and disarmament. The way resources are invested today will determine whether young people inherit systems that enable a sustainable future or systems that reproduce instability and exclusion.
This connection became especially clear during my speaking engagement at the session “Building the Future: youth at the forefront of SDG 9 – industry, innovation and infrastructure”, where I spoke in the main panel discussion about youth entrepreneurship in emerging economies and fragile contexts. In many regions, young people launch businesses, innovate in constrained environments and create livelihoods where formal systems have failed them. Yet this immense potential unfolds within deeply unequal conditions, shaped by weak infrastructure, limited access to finance and persistent conflict. And the reality is, that where youth potential is systematically left untapped, conflict finds fertile ground. This is not theoretical. In post-conflict and fragile settings, weak trust and underinvestment create a vicious cycle: conflict deters investors, lack of investment limits jobs, and economic exclusion fuels renewed instability.
These reflections carried into a powerful side event organized by UNODA with the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the UN, centered on the Secretary-General’s report “The Security We Need - Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future ”. As part of my reflections in the panel discussion of the event, I highlighted how money spent on the military is money not spent on education, job creation or economic equality. Every budget choice reflects a political priority, and globally, we have normalised investing heavily in defense while underfunding development and the foundations for societal prosperity. This particularly harms young people in their access to education and limits access to future-oriented careers, and reduced trust in public institutions.
Another topic that was frequently discussed during the ECOSOC Youth Forum was the rapid technological transformation. Artificial intelligence and digital technologies hold enormous promise for productivity and inclusion. Young people are not only users of these tools, but are also developers, entrepreneurs and innovators. Yet many remain excluded from these emerging technologies governance processes and economic benefits. At the same time, military-driven technological development often accelerates inequalities, rather than reducing them, which is something I further tried to highlight during my panel interventions.
In addition to the two panel discussions, I got to participate at a Ministerial Breakfast on Meaningful Youth Participation. The discussion between Ambassadors and youth representatives focused on opening doors for young people to participate in decision-making, not just as symbolic representatives, but as contributors with lived experience and expertise.
This is precisely where the #Youth4Disarmament community plays a vital role. It creates pathways for young people to engage in policy debates that have historically been closed to them, while helping reshape disarmament discussions for contemporary realities. By connecting youth leaders across sectors, just like how I now got to attend the ECOSOC Youth Forum – although it is not inherently a disarmament focused event – Youth4Disarmament strengthens policy literacy, and opens doors to important conversations that often take place in silos, At the end of the day, all of this moves youth participation beyond consultation and towards real influence.