The Pacific head of the United Nations Childrens Foundation, Isiye Ndombi, says Pacific nations and donors must spend more to realise the potential of youth in the region.
A recent UNICEF report, The State of Pacific Youth, has highlighted what's holding youth back.
Mr Ndombi says there's a paucity of data on youth, who he says lack opportunities in terms of employment, education and representation.
He says to address this, a youth challenge fund is to be set up and a high level ministerial meeting will be held next year to focus on accelerating the investment in young people.
"Ahead of that meeting we should have done a lot of research that will show to these important, high-level, resource people the requirements that are needed to make data useful, to make the youth challenge fund work, to make education accessible for preparing young people."
