Every August 12, International Youth Day is a reminder that young people are not merely recipients of policy — they are indispensable partners in building fairer, more sustainable societies. The theme chosen for 2026, "Different Contexts, Common Aspirations" captures this precisely. Although young people's lives are shaped by deeply unequal circumstances, their aspirations — opportunity, meaningful participation, decent work, quality education, and a sustainable future — are remarkably similar. The challenge for institutions is not only to recognize these aspirations, but to create the conditions for all young people to turn them into decisions, opportunities, and a future of their own making.

Shared aspirations, unequal opportunities

There are 1.3 billion people aged 15 to 24 in the world today — the largest generation of young people in history. By 2050, 69% of them will live in low- and lower-middle-income countries (1). In Latin America and the Caribbean, young people make up nearly a quarter of the population: a decisive demographic force for the region's future, yet one facing deeply unequal challenges (2).

The gaps begin with access to work and education. Although global youth unemployment fell to 13% in 2023, insecure work remains the main option available to many young people in developing regions. At the same time, one in three young people lives in a country that isn't progressing fast enough to reduce the share of young people who are neither in school nor employed (3).

The digital divide deepens these inequalities further. While young people are more connected than the rest of the population — 79% use the internet — access remains highly unequal across countries and territories: in 2023, connectivity reached 93% of the population in high-income countries, compared with just 35% in the least developed countries (4).

In Latin America and the Caribbean, as the regional Human Development Report Under Pressure highlights, these inequalities compound with insecurity, mental health strain, and a widening distance between young people and institutions. Support for democracy is lower among 16-to-25-year-olds, and nearly 40% say they distrust their governments.

But this distance should not be read as apathy or a rejection of democracy. Young people don't necessarily want less democracy — they want a democracy where their voice counts. They want to take part in the decisions that shape their lives and have real influence over their future.

The challenge, then, is not only to listen to their aspirations, but to turn them into real opportunities and effective participation. Creating spaces for meaningful participation can help rebuild trust, strengthen institutions and, above all, recognize young people not just as beneficiaries of public policy, but as protagonists of its solutions.

From policy recipients to strategic political actors

Recognizing young people's shared aspirations is an important first step. But for those aspirations to translate into shared action and results, there also need to be spaces where young people can bring their perspectives, engage in dialogue, and help shape decisions. In that sense, the 2026 theme connects to a conversation already well underway across the region.

The strategic guide Democratic Institutions for the Future lays out a framework for institutional transformation built around five governance accelerators — anticipatory, collaborative, communicational, integrity-driven, and digital — plus one cross-cutting thread: intergenerational governance. That thread works in two directions. The first: ensuring public decisions meet the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations. The second, more demanding: recognizing young people "as strategic political actors, with key capacities to innovate democracy, strengthen institutional trust, and transform civic participation." (5)

This isn't a semantic distinction. An institution can have a youth advisory council and still make exactly the same decisions it always did. The Guide is explicit on this point: participation mechanisms can become mere ritual when they channel opinions without actually changing decision-making patterns, power dynamics, or institutional priorities. The real question is whether young people's participation produces genuine influence, shared ownership, and new ways of deciding (6).

From intergenerational dialogue to decision-making

The regional picture is at once encouraging and demanding. The Report on Democracy and Development 2026: Democracies Under Pressure finds that Latin America and the Caribbean is today the most democratic region among developing regions, and the third most democratic in the world: more than four out of every five people live under elected governments. But that strength coexists with mounting pressures — economic and gender inequality, a crisis of political parties, polarization, disinformation, technological acceleration, the climate crisis, and the expansion of organized crime — all of which erode institutional trust. In response, the Report calls for a shift from reactive responses toward building resilient state capacities: capacities to anticipate risk, adapt, and deliver sustained results. This is exactly the terrain on which youth participation stops being a symbolic gesture and becomes an institutional capacity.

What does this look like in institutional practice? Latin America and the Caribbean offer some vivid examples:

• Participatory foresight. The guide Democratizing Futures offers tools for bringing foresight into participatory planning with young people, linking a diagnosis of the present with shared long-term visions. The Use of Foresight in Parliaments extends that approach to legislative, oversight, and representative functions.

• Local planning with young people at the center. Local Youth, Peace and Security plans show that intergenerational dialogue can be institutionalized. San Pedro Sula (Honduras) was the first city in Latin America to do so, through a process that brought together more than 30 youth organizations alongside civil society, academia, and the private sector; the experience was documented in the regional guide Safe Territories.

• Youth agendas with real influence. In Colombia, initiatives like Juventudes Transformadoras, supported by UNDP and UNFPA, have enabled Indigenous, Afro-descendant, rural, and urban young people to build political and community agendas in territories affected by armed conflict — strengthening training, intergenerational dialogue, and participation in public policy.

• Listening to youth on the futures agenda. In Brazil, the Governo do Futuro: Expectativas da Juventude gathering brought together around 100 young people aged 18 to 29 from across the country in Brasília to discuss democracy's contemporary challenges and turn perceptions and concerns into concrete policy proposals.

• Regional multi-stakeholder dialogue. The dialogue Youth Who Transform: Paths Toward Inclusion, Participation, and Wellbeing, driven by UNDP and CAF under the "Governance for Development" initiative, brought together youth leaders, national and local authorities, and specialists to examine inclusion gaps and pathways to effective participation in decision-making.

An invitation with an institutional translation

"Different Contexts, Common Aspirations" is a call to move beyond fragmented approaches and adopt a vision of youth development that is inclusive, equitable, and responsive to the realities of all young people. For public institutions across Latin America and the Caribbean, that call has a precise translation: preparing for the future means deciding it together with those who will inhabit it. Recognizing young people as strategic political actors isn't a generational concession — it's a condition for effectiveness and democratic legitimacy.

This August 12 is a good day to start.

1. Ibid., "Did you know...?" section, based on UN DESA, World Population Highlights 2026: Youth. Available at: https://desapublications.un.org/publications/world-population-highlights-2026-youth
2. UNDP, CAF and OIJ (2024), Serie Desafíos. Cuadernillo 2: Gobernabilidad y juventudes en América Latina y el Caribe. Available at: https://www.undp.org/es/latin-america/publicaciones/serie-desafios (PDF: link).
3. ILO (2024), Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024, International Labour Organization, August 12, 2024. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/global-employment-trends-youth-2024
4. Ibid., "Youth Internet use" section: https://www.itu.int/itu-d/reports/statistics/2023/10/10/ff23-youth-internet-use/
5. Ibid., Part I, table "Governance accelerators and the outcomes they enable," p. 12.
6. Ibid., section 2.2 "Collaborative governance," on the distinction between opening spaces for participation and enabling relational transformation.