Samoa’s Moeloto Tuilaepa Tiatia was elected to the Commonwealth Youth Council executive board ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October.

She emerged as Pacific representative after a strongly contested election in which 48 candidates vied for 10 seats on the council.

The election process concluded on 18 September 2024 with keen participation from youth delegates across the 56 Commonwealth member countries.

This year’s elections take on special significance as the Commonwealth Youth Council celebrates 10 years of advancing the youth development agenda and steps up youth participation at all levels of decision-making.

The candidates will serve from 2024 to 2026 and will lead inclusive consultations, projects, and events to voice young people’s concerns and shape youth development policies. The final election results and information about the newly elected executives will be shared on the Your Commonwealth website.

The candidates will be officially installed at a special ceremony during the Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF) 2024 at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa in October.  

The Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) is the official representative voice of the more than 1.5 billion young people in the Commonwealth, 60 per cent of whom are under the age of 30.  

Moeloto has been active as a youth advocate and was a contestant in the Miss Samoa 2023 pageant.

In December last year, she was the only female student and named the top student in her class at the Leulumoega Fou School of Fine Arts.

At the age of 17, she became an entrepreneur. She started by making organic deodorant which was a science project she worked on at school, and sold it to her friends and relatives and it only grew from there. Her business, ReVitolise has expanded and entered the local fashion market, which has seen her come up with her patterns, designs and printing fabric as well as baking pastries.

She hails from Avao, Fagamalo, Salimu Fagaloa, Alamagoto and Malifa.

The CYC was first established in 2013 with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Commonwealth Youth Programme. The Commonwealth Heads of Government endorsed the CYC as an autonomous, youth-led organisation at the CHOGM summit in Sri Lanka.