On 22 April, as part of the Road to Seville: the Local Way process, the United Nations Local2030 Coalition—together with the UN Youth Office and the FAO World Food Forum—co-organized a youth-led consultation aimed at spotlighting key challenges, sharing good practices, and identifying innovative financing mechanisms to build a more sustainable and inclusive future.

Key messages from the discussion included:

• Felipe Paullier (UN Youth Office) emphasized that financing is the engine of development and that breaking down financial barriers—especially for youth—is essential. He called on the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) to be a turning point in addressing the youth financing gap.
• Nakita Aboya (UN Local2030 Steering Committee) highlighted that youth initiatives remain underfunded and called on the consultation to shift narratives and ensure youth priorities are embedded in the FfD4 agenda and beyond.
• Victor Muiru (FAO World Food Forum) stressed the need to localize youth engagement and development finance, calling for seed capital, institutional capacity-building, and adaptable financial models to empower youth within agrifood systems.
• Marco Fayet (World Bank Group Youth Summit) underscored the need for youth inclusion in all development processes, emphasizing financial literacy, infrastructure, and partnership as critical tools for enabling youth-led change.
• Vicent Ssenyondo (Ministry of Finance, Uganda) shared that despite being implementers and beneficiaries, youth are often overlooked in national budgets. He called for financing youth-led visions and creating co-creation spaces to support youth leadership.
• Ana Erika Lareza (EvalYouth, Philippines) called for a fundamental shift in empowering young people—not just as participants, but as leaders—with resources and autonomy to implement their own solutions.
• Afruza Tanzi (H30, Bangladesh) addressed the barriers faced by young entrepreneurs, especially women, and called for personalized financial tools, mentoring, and financial literacy training to boost youth inclusion in policymaking.
• Maria Caterina Migliorero (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs) emphasized that blended finance must be rooted in the local economy—while institutionalizing youth voices in financial systems.
• Patricia Longwani (YONGO) called for removing bureaucratic barriers that limit youth access to finance. She advocated for decentralizing funding flows and expanding capacity-building to enable youth to access and manage resources effectively.
• Bruno Ernesto Ferreira Crespo (Food Bank of Bolivia) shared insights from Bolivia, stressing the value of social media for visibility, the importance of international cooperation, and the power of civil society in driving food justice.
• Pragya Devkota (Nepal WFF Chapter) pointed to Nepal’s youthful population and called for targeted investments and financial systems that support young people in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level.
• Sapphire Alexander (UNGEI / Transform Education) urged for localized, gender-transformative finance that supports grassroots youth feminist movements. She called for a power shift that goes beyond funding to accountability and long-term inclusion.
• Kiary Kea (Hawaiʻi SDG Youth Council) highlighted several culturally grounded, locally appropriate initiatives in Hawaiʻi, where youth engage through an island-system perspective rooted in Indigenous knowledge.
• Álvaro Díaz Duque (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain) shared that the Spanish cooperation plan acknowledges youth as key actors in building sustainable societies and called for inclusive financing strategies that reflect youth voices in policy design.
• Sébastien Vauzelle (UN Local2030 Coalition) affirmed that youth are central to the Coalition’s work and to systemic transformation. He reiterated the Coalition’s commitment to amplifying youth voices in global decision-making spaces.
• Lucia Graf (UN Local2030 Coalition) emphasized the importance of this timely youth consultation within the multi-level, multi-stakeholder Road to Seville: The Local Way process leading up to FfD4, underscoring the need to place youth voices at the center of efforts to localize finance for sustainable development.

As one of the Coalition’s five constituencies, youth are central to the Local2030 Coalition’s mission—and we’re committed to ensuring their voices are heard in global processes.

Watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/I-nKTnq2QWc.