Launched in 2021, the UNITAR Youth Ambassador Asia Pacific Programme aims to empower high school students in Hong Kong and various cities in China, as well as in other Asia-Pacific countries, to help our world build back better, greener, and stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over ten weeks, UNITAR Youth Ambassadors Asia Pacific learn from local and international experts about the most pressing issues affecting global recovery. They discuss youth-led leadership, the United Nations and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), digital transformation and innovation, youth employment, youth entrepreneurship for sustainable development, and social and climate justice.

UNITAR Division for Prosperity has long been committed to inspiring youth for sustainable development. Since 2010, Prosperity – through its Hiroshima Office – has been running the UNITAR Hiroshima Young Ambassador Programme for high school students in the Japanese city of peace. The programme has been one of UNITAR Prosperity/Hiroshima’s most important commitments to the local community and its people.

Through a partnership with ITS Education Asia, the UNITAR Youth Ambassador Asia Pacific Programme scales up the Hiroshima programme to reach young people from a wider region. Starting with Hong Kong in 2021, UNITAR and ITS plan to extend the Youth Ambassador Programme to various cities in China in 2022, followed by other Asia-Pacific countries in 2023.