LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF TONGA
PRESS RELEASE
2023 United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum (25 – 27 April 2023)
Lord Fakafanua, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Kingdom of Tonga, and a member of the Board of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, led the Kingdom of Tonga’s delegation to the 2023 United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum. The Youth Forum will be for three days which commenced yesterday, Tuesday, 25 April 2023, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The forum will address the ECOSOC theme of this year on “Accelerating the recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at all levels”.
Lord Fakafanua, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Kingdom of Tonga
This forum provides a platform for young people around the world to engage in a productive dialogue with the view to accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Developing Goals for which we lag far behind. In the Ministerial Roundtable, Lord Fakafanua, as the youngest Member of Parliament in Tonga, and youngest Presiding Speaker of Parliament in the world, emphasized that the voices of young people “…ought to be heard in decision making places, bodies, and what better way to empower these voices but as Members of Parliament”.
Lord Fakafanua, Ambassador Tōnē, and the delegation of the Kingdom of Tonga to the 2023 ECOSOC Youth Forum
The meetings during the forum will feature plenary sessions and interactive thematic debates and discussions on young people’s “needs, rights and priorities span across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, thereby ensuring appropriate investments are directed at youth development which is fundamental to achieving SDGs.
Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Tonga to the United Nations
NEW YORK
26 April 2023