Globally, 85 percent of the world’s young people live in developing countries. An increasing number of these young people are growing up in cities. In many cities on the African continent, more than 70 per cent of inhabitants are under the age of 30. Young people, especially girls and women, are the most vulnerable to social problems caused by unemployment and poverty. With more than 200 million youth living in poverty globally, there is a clear need to meaningfully engage and support youth.

UN-HABITAT, which regards youth as a major force for a better world, supports young people in the drive to alleviate poverty. The Habitat Agenda commits governments and UN-HABITAT to work in partnership with youth and empower them to participate in decision-making in order to improve urban livelihoods and develop sustainable human settlements.

Governments which oversee UN-HABITAT in 2007 adopted a resolution to establish the UN-HABITAT Youth Fund. Its aims are to:

• Mobilise young people for better youth-related policy formulation.
  
• Help governments, non-governmental, civil society and private-sector organizations better understand and respond to youth concerns.
  
• Support youth information networks;
  
• Pilot and demonstrate new ideas on employment, governance, adequate shelter and secure tenure;
  
• Share and exchange best practices;
  
• Promote vocational training and credit mechanisms for entrepreneurship and employment;
  
• Promote gender mainstreaming in all urban youth matters.

The Opportunities Fund for Urban Youth-Led Development , as it is officially called, was launched on 4 November 2008 at the fourth session of the World Urban Youth Forum in Nanjing, China.