What an incredible few days this has been in Seville! Our Starlight Foundation team is buzzing after attending the UN Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4). Honestly, being in rooms with heads of state, prime ministers, presidents, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been both humbling and inspiring.
The session with WTO Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on sustainable trade development in LDCs opened our eyes to how trade policy directly impacts the communities we serve. When families can’t access fair economic opportunities, their children end up on the streets—it’s all connected. The Gates Foundation’s “Child Priority Framework” session was particularly relevant to our work with street-connected children in Ghana. Hearing global leaders discuss putting children first in development agendas felt like validation of everything we’ve been fighting for at the grassroots level.
Secretary-General Guterres’ opening remarks about urgent private sector action resonated. The financing gaps he mentioned? We see them every day when trying to scale our programmes for vulnerable youth. These conversations have given us fresh ideas on innovative financing for youth development programmes, new networks of partners who understand our mission, and, most importantly, renewed energy to expand our reach across more communities.
The young people we work with in Teshie, Nungua, and beyond deserve the same opportunities being discussed in these high-level forums. Every conversation here has reminded us that our work—training youth, supporting families, and breaking poverty cycles—is part of this global development agenda.
Massive thanks to KLM and their Wings of Support programme! Without their sponsorship of our flights, we simply wouldn’t have been able to attend this transformative conference. Their belief in our mission has opened doors we never imagined possible.
Coming home with heads full of ideas and hearts full of hope. The youth of Ghana, watch this space! 🇬🇭✨
#FFD4 #UNConference #YouthDevelopment #StarlightFoundation #UnitedNations #Ghana #WingsOfSupport #KLM #Seville #YouthVoices
