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Centering Youth In Global Tax Governance – Your Ultimate Guide to Understanding the UN Tax Convention
In an era marked by deepening inequalities and shifting global financial systems, the question of who decides how resources are raised, shared, and governed has never been more urgent. Taxation, which has been long perceived as a technical issue reserved for experts and state negotiators, is now at the heart of global justice debates. As nations move toward a new United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, the need to ensure inclusivity, fairness, intergenerational equity and legitimacy within this process is critical.
At this critical juncture, the Youth Tax Justice Network (YTJN) stands at the forefront of redefining participation and representation in fiscal processes and fiscourse by championing the voices, priorities, and aspirations of young people across the Global South and beyond. We are backed by the belief and recognition that youth are not merely future taxpayers, but they are present stakeholders, who continue to find ways of organizing, researching, and advocating for a tax system that delivers equity, transparency, and sustainability.
COP 30 in Belem: What It Meant for Youth and the Future of Climate Finance
This year’s COP, framed as the “implementation COP,” aimed to move beyond promises and focus on how to make climate commitments real. Yet, deep disagreements on finance, trade, fossil fuel pathways, and other areas delayed progress until the final hours. More than 80 countries pushed for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, while many advocates and developing nations called for stronger commitments on climate finance, but the final text fell short of expectations.
Moving from Echoes to Action
A key discussion point was the looming public debt crisis, driven more by domestic borrowing than external sources. This inward borrowing approach has the unintended effect of shrinking fiscal space and crowding out essential public services.
International Youth Day 2025 solidarity statement
As the Harare Declaration states, the African youth bulge as an engine for the continent’s structural transformation agenda is at risk of being a missed opportunity due to being saddled with accumulated debt, while potentially being locked out of accessing finance that is desperately needed to invest in them, and making them carry the burden of a mortgaged future. Instead of investing in our potential, governments are forced to divert billions to creditors, too often to lenders who prioritise profit over people. This is not only an economic imbalance; it is a generational betrayal. We thus demand debt and tax justice that put people and the planet first.
Youth and Climate Justice: An Assessment of COP29 Outcomes on Climate Financing for Low-Income Countries
Youth are also greatly impacted by climate change due to the loss of educational and skill-building opportunities. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that by 2050, climate change would cause up to 1.8 billion school days to be lost worldwide, which will have a catastrophic effect on the education and skill-building of young people.
Concours panafricain des jeunes artistes créatifs 2025
C’est dans cette optique que le Youth for Tax Justice Network (YTJN) propose le Concours Panafricain de Jeunes en Arts Créatifs, une initiative qui vise à mobiliser la créativité de la jeunesse africaine afin de stimuler des idées novatrices et une prise de conscience populaire sur des enjeux clés de la gouvernance économique tels que la dette souveraine, la ZLECAf, le financement climatique, la récupération d’actifs et la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur la coopération fiscale internationale.
