Workshop Partners

Background

Youth is a major force in bringing movement and change. Today, the world is facing serious environmental degradation. The world is rapidly changing, and conventional solutions will have very limited impact on solving such problems. Also, it would not be incorrect to say, youth are a major productive stakeholders and have fresh and innovative ideas. Thus, there is a special requirement to involve youth in planning, policy making and decision-making as change agents for sustainable development. Taking this into consideration, all major international declarations/ recommendations for sustainable development, have stressed the need to involve youth as a key stakeholder. Agenda 21, Chapter 25, states that, “the involvement of today’s youth in environment and development decision-making and in the implementation of programmes is critical to the long-term success of Agenda 21”. The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) emphasize the involvement of youth particularly for building up a global partnership for development.

There are, at all levels, initiatives to strengthen partnership of youth in sustainable development. For instance, organisations such as UNEP organize programmes such as Asia-Pacific Leadership Programme on Environment and Sustainable Development.

They also support youth networks and involve youth in action/ research projects related to sustainable development. Also, once every two years, UNEP organizes the Global Youth Forum (GYF) to orient youth to issues related to sustainable development. They have initiated global and sub-regional networks such as Tunza, a global youth network and a South Asia Youth Environment Network (SAYEN). Organisations such as Taking IT Global are organising Youth Summit on the MDGs. IUCN- the World Conservation Union supports a youth organisation, Youth Environment Europe (YEE), and the World Bank is planning to have similar programmes.

Also, Government in most countries has programmes or policies specifically focusing issues related youth and sustainable development. Government of India has last year revised the national youth policy to include a focus on environment, education and training as specific key sectors of concerns for youth.

Youth would be a key stakeholder during the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). The ‘Youth and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)’ workshop with the Education for a Sustainable Future (ESF) Conference was a step towards developing recommendations by youth for the DESD.

Objectives

1. Orienting Youth to role of youth in sustainable development
2. Sharing of approaches and initiatives related to sustainable development
3. Developing recommendations by youth for the DESD.

The workshop shared approaches and initiatives for involving Youth in SD. The initiatives shared included components necessary for the education for change process. The learnings shared during this session were used by the participants to develop the recommendations for DESD and create a broad map of actions by youth during the next session.

The second session developed recommendations by Youth for DESD and the UNESCO Draft Implementation Scheme on DESD. This was done in working groups.

Outcomes Expected from the Workshop include

1. Reiteration of key roles of Youth in SD
2. Identification of constraints to participation and how to overcome them
3. Development of recommendations by Youth for DESD

Partners for the workshop included

1. SAYEN
2. UNEP
3. Bayer