I welcome the Commonwealth Youth for the Future Initiative. The Commonwealth's future lies in its youth. I hope that the Initiative will help us to learn from each other across the Commonwealth.

       Young people are our future. They form a large proportion of the population in the developing world and should be a priority target for any development programme whose goal is poverty reduction. I hope that the Youth for the Future Initiative will help Commonwealth countries to make progress towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for poverty elimination.