GPSU – Message on the Occasion of International Youth Day 2024.

The Youths of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and the Executive Council join the world in celebration of International Youth Day 2024 under the theme “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development”. Celebration of International Youth Day 2024 gives every Guyanese youth the opportunity to reflect on achievements and lessons learnt. The day also affords the scope to charter a trajectory in an uncertain and treacherous world. Youths have a unique opportunity in the midst of the world’s plethora of crises to play a pivotal role in contribution to sustainable development.  The rapid development of technology and particularly the advent of artificial intelligence necessitates that this generation of young people must wield those tools in paving the digital pathway for realization of the sustainable development goals.

Youths in the Public Sector must take all available opportunities to learn the latest application of technology for the advancement of processes and tasks in the workplace. Additionally, those young people at management level must advance the crafting and implementation of progressive policies aimed at transforming the Public Service into an effective and efficient entity.

The Guyana Public Service Union fully embraces the fact that digital technology is transformative and that every youth considering digital pathway must similarly consider the challenges which may emerge. Therefore, knowledge and experience of breaches in privacy, layoffs due to redundancies, automation of work and chances of inequality arising would enable development of strategies in overcoming those challenges. The Trade Union Movement is at the forefront ensuring that decent work is a realization for all.

At the moment of ever-expanding wars, famines, rising cost of living, and the climate crisis, the time is now for youths to form part of the bigger picture and play a pivotal role in the decision making framework in transforming the future based on the sustainable development goals. They are the future therefore it is imperative that they be included at all levels in the global fight for social and economic justice and decent work.

The Guyana Public Service Union advocates for more youth participation and for training, exposures, education and resource accessibility for a better future in preparation of economic development and social change. At the centre of their struggles is a living wage, a necessary component to the realization of decent work and a right to live in decency. Youth poverty is preventable if only governments would act and have policies to help families earn more, especially in developing nations.  While poverty is a systemic problem, youths will continue to be the disadvantaged in the whole continuum cycle, from generation to come if decision makers continue to neglect them.

It is time to make changes and have youth participation at all levels, embracing the reach of digitalization for greater access and equality of opportunities for a better future and the realization of a sustainable future.

On behalf of the President, Executive Council and Members of the Guyana Public Service Union warm greetings are extended to all youths Locally, Regionally and Internationally. A better future must be realized soonest with acceptable standards for all youths worldwide.

Happy International Youth Day 2024!