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Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND) calls for action to actively engage young people towards ensuring sustainable human development the occasion of the International Youth Day Celebration. In a resolution (54/120), the UN General Assembly in 1999 endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth that 12 August should be declared International Youth Day. This primarily is to encourage young people around the world to organize activities to raise awareness about the situation of youth in their respective countries. The 2015 International Youth Day theme is Youth Civic Engagement. Youth Civic Engagement seeks to promote young people�s effective inclusive civic engagement at all levels. Eventhough some progress have been made regarding attention and policy and programming focus on youth civic engagement by governments, UN entities, regional and multilateral organizations, CSOs, youth and researchers � much more should be done. The engagement and participation of youth is essential to achieve sustainable human development. Yet often the opportunities for youth to engage politically, economically and socially are low or non-existent. More efforts are needed to raise awareness about the importance of youth civic engagement and its benefits to the individual and to society, including for sustainable development as well as resilience and wellbeing. The International Youth Day 2015 campaign aims at promoting civic engagement and participation of youth in politics and public life, so that young people can be empowered and bring a full contribution to society, development and peace (UN website). Embedded in the vision of the National Youth Policy of Ghana under Section 5.1 is the need to among others: 1. Empower and actively involve the youth of Ghana in productive activities for individual, community, and national development. 2. Institutionalize youth participation at all levels of the decision making process to ensure the nurturing of democratic culture. 3. Enable the youth acquire, share and transfer knowledge, expertise, and experience through domestic and international networking and peer-learning. SYND is therefore appealing to the government of Ghana and all other development-oriented actors to further deepen engagement with young people in ensuring sustainable national development and should endeavor to involve them actively in decision making processes at all levels in line with the National Youth Policy, African Youth Charter, and the World Programme of Action for Youth. On this occasion, SYND celebrates the many gallant young Ghanaian men and women who are expending their time, energy, abilities and resources in various sectors notably health, education, empowerment, children etc towards contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which expires in 2015. We are confident that young people shall continue to play key roles and participate in the ongoing discussions around the Post 2015 Development Framework including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As our contribution to the development processes, we have published research papers on various national environment-related policies as part of our efforts in pushing the positions of young people � and this we intend to intensify and strengthen engagements with all relevant stakeholders. Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND) is a youth-led network civil society organization in Ghana which focuses primarily on deepening good environmental governance. Our operational work involves tracking and contributing towards environment-related policies as well as formulation and implementation of programs, projects and activities from community to national level. Our vision is to help achieve environmental sustainability through the development and active participation of young people in managing the environment through policy formulation, programs planning and implementation of projects and activities to sustain society. Chibeze Ezekiel Executive Co-Ordinator, +233 244 967931; E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected] Website: www.strategicyouthnetwork.org