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At just a young age, Nico Pampier is already shaping policy, shifting narratives, and standing in rooms many spend a lifetime trying to enter. As the Executive Chairperson of the United Nations Association of South Africa Chapter at the University of Cape Town, a UN Youth Representative, and Global Youth Caucus Representative for the Major Group of Children and Youth on SDG 16 Nico’s titles only begin to reflect the depth of her work. She is also a UNHCR Young Champion for Refugees and an SDG 16 Youth Leader, a role that has her boldly pushing for peace, justice, and strong institutions across the African continent and beyond.
But for Nico, the mission goes beyond institutions it’s deeply personal.
“I don’t do this work for applause or titles,” Nico says. “I do it because I’ve seen how systems fail people, especially refugees and displaced youth. And someone has to speak up.”
Born and raised in South Africa, Nico operates from a country that while progressive in some refugee policies still faces deep bureaucratic challenges. Although South Africa doesn’t operate traditional refugee camps, that doesn’t mean integration is smooth. Refugees may access primary education, but barriers to higher education, healthcare, and legal documentation remain steep.
“I’ve worked with young refugees who had the grades and the dreams but couldn’t study because of a missing permit or a piece of paper,” she explains. “We fight for those papers every single day.”
Nico has helped many asylum seekers secure documentation to continue their education. That includes navigating medical requirements, immigration bureaucracy, and a lack of information that often keeps refugees in the shadows.
Her advocacy stretches from grassroots support to global negotiation tables. Whether she’s addressing a UN General Assembly side event or leading a youth caucus session, Nico ensures that displaced voices are not just represented, but heard.
“Refugees are not passive victims. They’re students, leaders, entrepreneurs, artists. We need to stop framing them as burdens and start seeing them as part of our future.”
As a UNESCO focal point, on the flagship priorities within UNESCO “Priority Africa”, Nico also champions inclusive education as a pillar of peacebuilding. Her vision aligns with the UN’s SDG 4 and SDG 16 where access to education, justice, and institutional equity are central to global progress.
She believes multilateral spaces still have a long way to go.
“We talk about youth inclusion a lot. But inclusion isn’t just inviting young people to speak at events. It’s about listening to them, funding them, and giving them real roles in shaping policy.”
Nico has worked with bodies like the African Union, UNHCR, and UNESCO, where she’s pushed for clearer youth mandates and better integration pathways for marginalized communities. One of her biggest calls is for flexible, youth-responsive refugee policies.,
“We need systems that move as fast as the crisis,” she says. “If someone flees a war, they shouldn’t wait two years for a school seat. That’s how we lose potential.”
Despite her diplomatic work, Nico remains deeply grounded in community. She regularly engages with refugee families, students, and civil society groups to stay connected to the lived realities of the people she advocates for.
Her work is not about titles it’s about transformation. Nico is building bridges between institutions and impact, between policy and people, between today’s challenges and tomorrow’s leaders.
“Young people, especially in Africa, are not the future. We are the now, our future is not a far fetch dream, because are living the reality now, of not being able to influence policy, of only being a token to the discussions” That is why it is important that we mobilize young people as much as we can to ensure their voices are in these spaces and that we demand a present multilateral system to adapt to the needs of our future and not we adapting to its current state, because not only is it failing the present generations but there is no guarantee that the future might be brighter”
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