At the 13th Commonwealth Youth Forum in Samoa, ten young people were sworn in to lead the Commonwealth Youth Council. Months after, we’re releasing our first annual report, a full account of what this executive team achieved in the first year of our tenure from October 2024 to October 2025.
Reflecting on the year, CYC Chairperson Joshua Opey said:
“We came into this with a clear sense of what needed to change and a determination to move fast. The first year wasn’t perfect; we faced real structural challenges, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. But we moved. We showed up in the rooms that matter, we listened to young people across the Commonwealth, and we started building something more solid than what we inherited. That work continues.”
Taking the youth declaration to the top
Within days of inauguration, the CYC Executive Committee formally presented the Apia Youth Declaration to Commonwealth Heads of Government at CHOGM 2024. The declaration, produced by young people at the Forum, sets out what Commonwealth youth actually need: decent jobs, quality education, digital access, and urgent climate action.
It was received by the Prime Minister of Samoa, the Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the Commonwealth Secretary General. That moment set the tone for everything that followed.
Bringing 200 stakeholders into the same room
In August 2025, the CYC convened the first-ever Consultative Dialogue for Commonwealth Youth Ecosystem Stakeholders in Windhoek, Namibia. Over 200 people, including youth council leaders, government officials, and development partners, came together for an honest conversation about what is working and what is not in the Commonwealth’s approach to youth development.
The outcome was the Windhoek Declaration: a concrete blueprint covering jobs, education, digital innovation, and climate action.
Building connections, showing up globally
The past year has taken the CYC executive team across the globe to advocate and work with stakeholders to pursue multiple goals in the interest of Commonwealth Youth. The team represented Commonwealth youth at COP 29, the Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting, the Asia Regional Youth Ministerial Meeting, and Youth Connekt Africa in Kigali, where a joint session with the Pan African Youth Union on youth employment drew around 500 participants.
Executive committee members have held direct meetings with ministers and government officials across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Canada, from Sierra Leone to India to Zambia, laying the groundwork for partnerships that will outlast this executive cycle.
In March 2025, the team co-hosted the Commonwealth Youth Leaders’ Summit in London and launched the Commonwealth Leadership Series at the London School of Economics, a new platform that brings together experts and young people around responsible leadership. That same month, more than 300 youth leaders across Commonwealth countries organised local Commonwealth Day events, reaching an estimated 5,000 young people, and used the occasion to introduce youth to the Commonwealth AI Academy’s free, certified courses.
What comes next
The next year has a clear agenda. The CYC is launching the One-Country One-Project Initiative, a programme that will work with National Youth Councils and Youth Leaders in each member country to identify and support one locally-designed project for young people. Global problems need local solutions. This is how we start delivering that.
The Commonwealth Young Leaders’ Fellowship is also in development, a six-month leadership programme for at least ten exceptional young people from across the Commonwealth, to be delivered under the auspices of the Commonwealth Secretary General.
A comprehensive constitutional review, mandated by the General Assembly and reflected in the Windhoek Declaration, is underway to modernise the CYC’s governance structure. And the team is actively working with stakeholders to finalise a permanent home for the CYC Secretariat – a long-overdue step towards institutional stability.
A note on accountability
We are publishing this report because accountability is not optional. There are challenges in how the CYC is resourced, in how National Youth Delegates are supported, and in how youth recommendations translate into action at the intergovernmental level. The Windhoek process was built around naming those challenges honestly. The work ahead is about solving them.
“This report belongs to every young person in the Commonwealth. It’s a record of what was done in their name. We hope it is also a call to action for governments, for National Youth Councils, for partners to come alongside and help us build a Commonwealth that actually works and delivers for its youth.” – Joshua Opey, 5th Chairperson, CYC
The full CYC Annual Report 2024–2025 is available to read and download here
The Commonwealth Youth Council is the official representative body of young people across the 56 member states of the Commonwealth.
