Terre des Hommes calls for a strong youth mandate

Berlin/Osnabrück, June 30, 2026 – On the occasion of the presentation of the new North-South Development Policy Commission (ENSK) at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, Terre des Hommes Germany is calling for a binding and visible youth mandate in the new body.
“If the German government wants to rethink development policy, it cannot simply involve young people in the Global South symbolically. They must have a seat at the table and actively help shape the agenda,” explains Joshua Hofert, spokesperson for the board of Terre des Hommes.

The commission appointed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is tasked with developing new partnership models between the Global North and South and formulating recommendations for the period after 2030. Terre des Hommes Germany welcomes this reform approach but urges a genuine reorientation: away from traditional donor-recipient logics and towards partnership-based cooperation on equal terms.

The pressure to act is high: 412 million children worldwide live in extreme poverty, and more than half of those considered to be experiencing multidimensional poverty are children. Around 520 million children grow up in conflict zones. According to the United Nations, serious violations of children's rights reached a record high in 2024. At the same time, the climate crisis and digital transformations are exacerbating inequalities – especially for young people in the Global South.

“This generation is already bearing the greatest burdens of global crises. Their perspectives must be structurally anchored – not as a symbol, but as a political reality,” said Hofert.

Terre des Hommes Germany therefore calls for strong participation of young people and civil society voices from the Global South within the commission.

“A credible youth mandate is not an optional extra, but a prerequisite for fair and sustainable development policy. Anyone who wants to shape global structural policy must seriously involve those who will bear the consequences of today’s decisions for the longest time,” Hofert emphasizes.