“How you treat the people around you and your behavior towards them is leadership. Taking care of people around you is leadership. You must do better and lead better and this year's Youth Parliament is an opportunity for you to do exactly that and explore your ability to lead and be a leader.”

In his opening remarks for the Youth Parliament today, United Nations Resident Coordinator Mr. Richard Howard challenged the 60 successful applicants of the 2023 Youth Parliament to be leaders where they are and where they can.

“It does not matter if you are working in a restaurant doing dishes or if you are holding a top post as the UN Resident Coordinator, you have the ability to lead where you can.”

The 2023 national youth parliament is facilitated and led by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Papua New Guinea  in partnership with the  National Youth Development Authority and with the funding support from the European Union’s Spotlight Initiative. The  Youth Parliament will be held from 11th - 15th December, 2023. The Youth Parliament was first conducted in 2020 and since then it has extended to the provincial level, with UNFPA and NYDA, convening the first provincial youth parliament in Morobe, this year.

The Youth Parliament is a platform that enables young people to attain the confidence and knowledge to become leaders, gain skills on self awareness and assertiveness.  Youth are taught the principles and qualities of good leaders, national and international human rights instruments and the constitution of PNG, as well as  training on data use for them to be able  to undertake evidence based debates, advocacy and activism. 

The Deputy Director of the National Youth Development Authority Mrs. Dorcas Mileng in her opening remarks stressed on the importance of being not just a leader but a quality leader. She welcomed the youth parliament initiative as a mechanism for building  the critical mass of young leaders the country needs to develop. 

“You have to be deliberate about being a leader and the type of leader you want to be. Leadership is at all levels and as young leaders, you will  need to learn fast and acquire quality skills to provide better leadership”, Ms. Mileng emphasized. 

“We as a nation have to be deliberate and conscious about developing quality leaders and such a youth leadership program as the youth parliament is good for us to prepare young people to lead since leadership occurs at all levels in society. “

“NYDA  will support this year's Youth Parliament cohorts as it has done for the past 3 years, because we believe that this is the beginning of the type of quality leaders we want to see for our country,” NYDA’s Deputy Director concluded. 

Present at the opening of this year's youth parliament was the  European Union Ambassador His Excellency Jacque Fradin, who in his opening remarks emphasized the potential for youth leadership in good governance and development of Papua New Guinea. He challenged the 60 successful applicants to be inquisitive and to ask questions about issues that affect them. The week-long event will have experts across different fields talk to youth about leadership, human rights, the constitution and elections,  and social issues such as Gender based violence.     

“I urge you young leaders here to work together and raise issues and concerns as one collective voice. Ask the  questions and as much as you can, drain every information you can from these sessions.”

With only 60 spots for the Youth parliament, this year saw a total of 406 young leaders applying and after a thorough screening process, 60 young leaders from 14 Provinces, including the National Capital District  are participating in this week long event.