The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took centre stage this week at a forum at UN Headquarters where youth advocates stressed how access to sexual and reproductive healthcare underpins the global push to achieve a more just and equitable world by 2030.

UN statistics show that of the 1.1 million AIDS deaths in 2015, 110,000 were among people 15 years old or younger.

This age group also accounted for 150,000 of the 2.1 million new HIV infections reported that year.

Ruben Pagés, a Youth Programme Coordinator with the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and Hayley Gleeson of the International Planned Parent Federation in the United Kingdom, participated in the UN forum, which concluded on Friday.

They spoke to Elizabeth Scaffidi about a youth alliance known as ACT!2030 which aims to dismantle barriers that put young people at risk of being infected with HIV.

Duration: 2’35”