In February 2021, UNODC launched its new Strategy for 2021-2025, which outlined the empowerment of youth as a cross-cutting commitment of the Office. Youth empowerment focuses on involving young people in problem-solving and uplifting their voices in decision-making processes. In order to meaningfully engage youth, young people need to be involved in every step of the programme cycle. Initiatives should not only be implemented “for” youth, but also “with” youth to allow for co-creation.
In order to support this cross-cutting commitment, UNODC launched the Youth Empowerment Accelerator Framework - or the YEA! Framework. The YEA! Framework acts as an umbrella to accelerate the impact of youth across the Office by strengthening and enforcing key youth mainstreaming actions.
