LocationsIn his op-ed for World Youth Skills Day 2025, UNDP Resident Representative, Nicholas Booth, highlights the importance of investing in Papua New Guinea's large youth population.
It is time for Papua New Guinea to embrace youth as its greatest asset
July 15, 2025
Papua New Guinea has the third youngest population in the Asia Pacific region
UNDP Papua New Guinea/Juho Valta
Each year on July 15, the world comes together to celebrate World Youth Skills Day. The day is an opportunity for us to highlight the critical role that young people play in solving the most pressing challenges in their societies and ensuring sustainable development across the globe.
While Papua New Guinea is well known for its vast natural resources, the country has an even greater asset: a massive youth population. As the third youngest country in the Asia Pacific region by median age, immense potential lies in the youth of Papua New Guinea. Given the right skills and opportunities, these young people can turn our dream of a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable Papua New Guinea into a reality.
Yet, being a young person in Papua New Guinea is not easy. The country’s youth unemployment remains alarmingly high. Due to expensive school admission fees, many families struggle to pay for their children’s education. While large amounts of youth are leaving their villages for new opportunities in urban areas, many of them lack the technical, digital and entrepreneurial skills and access to succeed in today’s economy.
Through the EU-funded STREIT PNG Programme, UNDP has electrified six school in the Sepik region with solar energy
UNDP Papua New Guinea/Juho Valta
This contributes to the disenfranchisement of young people, which fuels social problems from juvenile delinquency to substance abuse. These issues should be addressed with utmost urgency. There are few things more threatening to social stability and national development than a large youth population, which feels disillusioned and disempowered.
That is why UNDP is working hard with our partners across the country to raise the voices of a new generation of Papua New Guinean youth leaders. Together with the Government of Papua New Guinea, our donors and civil society, we are equipping local youth with both the hard and soft skills they need to succeed.
For example, in Enga Province, UNDP has supported over 30 community-based organizations in carrying out agricultural projects to improve local livelihoods, food security, and climate resilience. These organizations have mobilized hundreds of Engan youth to build dozens of fish ponds, poultry houses, and piggeries, and enabled them to take part in mass initiatives to modernize local coffee production and rehabilitate degraded soil through tree planting.
In Enga Province, UNDP has mobilized hundreds of youth to partake in mass agricultural initiatives
UNDP Papua New Guinea/Juho Valta
In Hela and Southern Highlands Provinces, we have trained hundreds of youth from formerly conflict-ridden communities on peaceful conflict resolution, gender equality, and climate change. This has led to the formation of new youth organizations that are passing on their knowledge to at-risk youth in the region.
In East and West Sepik Provinces, we have played a critical role in creating an enabling studying environment for students from remote and rural areas by installing solar energy systems to six local schools. The solar energy systems have put an end to persistent issues with blackouts by providing the schools with a reliable supply of cheap and clean energy.
In Bougainville, UNDP and the Government of Japan are constructing three Innovation Hubs, which will provide local youth access to trainings and resources that will enable to start their own businesses. Recently, we joined hands with the Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform and the North Bougainville Women’s Office by hosting our first ever youth bootcamp at the Innovation Hub in Buka, where youth from Bougainville’s climate vulnerable atolls learned about green businesses and climate resilience.
UNDP has supported the Mike Manning Democracy Youth Camp in Papua New Guinea
UNDP Papua New Guinea/Juho Valta
Through our EU-funded ‘PNG Anti-Corruption’ and ‘Transparency and Accountability in PNG’ projects, we are training a new generation of civic-minded youth leaders who value transparency, integrity and accountability in governance at the national level and in Bougainville. As part of our interventions, we have had the privilege of co-hosting the National Youth Mock Parliament, supporting the Mike Manning Democracy Youth Camp, and engaging youth in high-level dialogues and trainings on anti-corruption and other critical issues related to effective governance.
While these initiatives are a great start, more has to be done to ensure that the youth of Papua New Guinea can unleash their potential. In particular, we must focus on:
- Increasing investment in technical and vocational education and training in both urban and rural areas
- Expanding sports, arts and other recreational programs to keep youth from engaging in harmful activities
- Championing equal opportunities, particularly for young women and girls
Doing this is critical, because when we equip young people with skills, opportunities, and hope, we do more than just shape individual futures—we reshape an entire nation’s destiny. Our youth are not only the leaders of tomorrow: if we empower them, they can also be the changemakers of today.