Chiamaka is 31, a single university graduate from Enugu who relocated to Lagos three years ago to pursue a career in digital marketing. She is educated, skilled, ambitious, and hardworking. She has a contract job, but the pay is not enough to save meaningfully. She had planned to have a fulfilling career, strong finances and to have started her own family by the time she was 30. She feels like her aspirations are quietly becoming unreachable. She experiences persistent anxiety that makes her feel like the ground keeps shifting beneath her. She scrolls through the achievements of her peers online and feels simultaneously proud of them and quietly diminished by the comparison.

Faruk is a final-year geography student at the University of Ibadan. He has repeatedly told his friends, "I can't stop thinking about what's coming." He had spent three years studying the data on climate change and its projected impact on West Africa, and he could not stop internalizing what that data meant for his own future. The recent flooding in Lagos and the changes in the weather conditions in the country was also a source of distress. When he thinks about his future, becoming a parent and the impact of the climate projections on water security, food supply, regional conflict, and mass displacement by the time a child born today reaches adulthood, the thoughts keep producing answers he cannot live with.

Discussion

Every 11 July, the world marks World Population Day. This year, the theme is "Realising the hopes and aspirations of young people — today and for the future." The theme reflects findings from the UNFPA Demographic Futures Survey, which captured the views of more than 100,000 internet-connected people aged 18 to 39 across 73 countries, exploring their aspirations for relationships, parenthood, and life more broadly.

As youth populations continue to rise in countries like Nigeria, the struggles faced by youth grow more dire. Especially when nations fail to plan and anticipate their needs. Many mental health challenges faced by young people are driven by structural issues such as housing, high unemployment rates as well as galloping rates of inflation. Other challenges include financial challenges, job insecurity, climate change, digital pressures and presence, peer pressure as well as parental expectations to marry early and have children.

Climate anxiety is a relatively new mental health challenge for young people. It is an extreme worry about climate change and a form of anticipatory grief that many young people feel. Led by famous youth such as Greta Thunberg of Sweden, more youth are becoming aware and concerned about the damage to the world and how their futures may be jeopardized by it.

Mental Health Concerns

These challenges culminate in increased rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal behaviour. Some youth turn to alcohol and other recreational drugs to help them cope with the challenging realities of their life. Unfortunately, this only compounds their problems, rather than solve them.

UN DESA's World Youth Report on Youth Mental Health and Well-being, launched earlier this year, highlighted the urgent need for inclusive, youth-informed mental health policies, noting that young people face intersecting challenges, including poverty and inequality, barriers to education and decent work, and digital harm.

Therefore, if we are aiming for the realization of young people's potential, we must work together to facilitate their holistic well-being.

Strategies to Foster the Wellbeing and Aspirations of Young People

• Universal access to youth mental health services: The provision of proactive, youth-centered health services that are accessible without financial barriers is integral to promoting the well-being of young people and fostering a future where they can contribute to the global economy efficiently.
• Provision of school and university-based mental health services: An effective strategy to improve the well-being of young people is building health services that reach young people before problems escalate, with initial support provided by peer-to-peer youth counsellors with additional back-up by trained practitioners.
• Addressing structural drivers such as housing security, employment opportunities, and social support networks will provide windows of opportunity, rather than feelings of overwhelming stress.
• Digital regulation: Digital platforms play a huge role in the well-being of young people and holding these platforms accountable for the psychological impact of their design choices on young users is crucial, rather than leaving families and individuals to manage it alone. Many countries now regulate social media among young people to protect them from harm.
• Peer-to-peer mental health outreach: Investing in training and supporting young people to reach other young people, particularly in communities where professional services remain stigmatized or inaccessible, is very crucial. Asido Campus Network is a student-led mental health advocacy club and an initiative of Asido Foundation that has proven effective in promoting mental health promotion among tertiary students.
• Community and belonging: We should create places where young people find each other and build connections that protect and promote their mental health.