


It’s a call to action for youth to rise, engage, demand, and drive transformative change and co-creators of a new financing paradigm that truly serves the people and the planet. This piece is also a call to action for governments, multi-lateral institutions and civil society organizations to rise to the challenge of meaningful youth inclusion.
Africa, home to the youngest and fastest growing population globally, has faced shrinking fiscal space, capital flight, and uneven access to international financial markets. For African youth, who not only represent over 70% of the continent’s population but also the continent’s potential drivers of innovation and growth, these challenges translate into restricted opportunities, heightened vulnerabilities, and a fragile future.
Youth should care. The main reason is because we’re paying, but not heard. Africa is the youngest continent in the world, with over 60% of its population under the age of 25. Yet despite being the majority, young people are among the most heavily taxed, especially through consumption taxes such as VAT on airtime, mobile money, transport, and everyday goods.
Fiscal discipline reduces unsustainable debt levels, freeing resources for investments in sectors like agriculture, tech, and green industries, which are critical for youth employment.
The leaders committed to “strengthen measures to curb corrupt borrowing and lending, including by enhancing domestic legal frameworks as appropriate, including clarifications regarding the authority to borrow, and fully utilizing UNCAC and its Conference of the State Parties to explore options to make such contracts unenforceable. We will establish a platform for borrower countries with support from existing institutions, and a UN entity serving as its secretariat.
We write to you as the Youth for Tax Justice Network (YTJN), a global, youth-led coalition advocating for inclusive and equitable
tax systems that serve the needs of both present and future generations across Africa and Europe. As the Intergovernmental
Negotiating Committee deliberates on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation in New York,
we urge you to recognize this moment for what it is: a generational turning point.