Jayathma Wickramanayake

Within the senior echelons of the world’s largest intergovernmental organization, Jayathma Wickramanayake represents youth. Last year, Wickramanayake—who was appointed the United Nations’ Envoy on Youth in 2017—and the U.N. announced Youth 2030, a strategy to involve young people in U.N. initiatives and strengthen the organization’s focus on their needs, including sustainable development and economic empowerment. “We need to make sure that the United Nations works, not just for young people, but with young people in partnership,” she says. —Jasmine Aguilera