Deadline: Applications will close on 31st August.
‘’The Role of Youth in achieving Peace, Education and Sustainable Development’’
17 Sustainable development goals (SDGs) were drafted and agreed by the world leaders at the UN Summit in 2015 as a follow-up of the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the goal to mobilize stakeholders in tackling global problems and creating a sustainable future for all. One of the main differences between the new SDGs and the previous MDGs is that they pay special attention to the call for global partnership in achieving all the goals with the belief that only joint efforts of governments, business and civil sector can bring a sustainable change.
The SDGs have embraced a corner principle of Global Diplomacy that states that any effort needs to be multi-level oriented and heterogeneously participated. No matter, if we talk about peace, education or sustainable development of our communities, cross-sectoral, cross-country cooperation is essential if we want to achieve long lasting results for present and future youth generation to live in a better, more peaceful and sustainable world.
During the Summit we will look into the ways to strengthen cooperation and joint efforts to co-create sustainable development in the areas of education and peace.
The main theme of the conference revolves around three pillars: sustainability, peace and education.
Pillar 1 – Sustainability:
The greatest challenge for our generation is to make the transition from the brown, fossil-fuelled economy that built and powered the 20th Century industrial civilization – to a green, renewable and sustainable economy which the world will require as fossil fuels will run out (according to some scientific predictions) towards the end of the 21st century. It is not just fossil fuels that are running out: the world is approaching ‘peak in everything and everywhere’ – and it is today’s youth generation who are, willingly or not, going to have to address that challenge. In fact, we might be one of the last generations who still have the time to bring a sustainable change to the world. No more time for excuses. We have to do it! And to do it right!
Learning to live in a sustainable way within the resource constraints of a small, fragile and finite, but beautiful planet – it is a challenge which our and future generations will have to solve. Despite all these herculean challenges, we want to envision the future with shinning optimism; we want to find creative and innovative solutions for the problems we are facing today and we want to work together on designing solutions to solve the challenges we are facing.
During the Summit we will explore the idea of sustainability from different perspectives. We will look at the environmental, social and economic sustainability. We will discuss relevant issues as eco-citizen, eco-responsibility on individual, community, national and international levels, resource sharing and sustainable leadership. We will look into action plans related to the sustainable education and peace and stability in our communities. We will work and co-create and design actions for a more sustainable world.
Pillar 2 – Peace:
Peace is the foundation of any kind of human prosperity. No kingdom, Empire or Civilizational space survived without peace. This is the foundation and driver of our development and only in peace we are able to unlock our true potential as human beings freed from fear and freed from wanting. We believe that to be able to have peaceful communities, we have to start from ourselves. Therefore, during the Summit we will focus on ourselves and on our inner peace development. We will look into different ways to bring more consciousness and mindfulness into our daily lives, such as meditation and develop our ability to live in the present moment.
We believe that everything starts from an individual. If we are able to be more mindful about our actions and behavior, we will be able later on to bring this attitude to our friends, families and communities. And you know what peace is also a form of sustainability. In the Summit you will learn how!
Pillar 3 – Education:
The system of education running in several of our countries sometimes fails to meet the challenge due to lack of flexibility and clear lack of innovation. The education we have today seems to be very often designed to craft individuals to be obedient, unconscious, and dormant. We want to innovate and co-create an education system where people would be raised to be conscious, to have critical-thinking skills, to be creative all the time, to overall be empathetic human beings.We envision an education system where people would think and act with their open mind and open heart.
We want to see youth after finishing their education, daring to take risks; not afraid to fail and become leaders and change makers who are going to transform communities and countries in a positive way, and who are going to become job creators, instead of waiting for a job to come to them. This path will inevitably boost economies and contribute to solving social challenges worldwide.
During the Summit we will look into the ways of de-constructing the outdated curriculums, looking to project-based and/or experiential and non-formal learning education with increased emphasis on peer-to-peer learning and enterprise creation, creative and innovative learning ways using ICT technologies, mindful and conscious communication between teachers and students.
We believe we can pioneer and champion these new forms of education across the sub-continent, led by young people who can become co-creators of the education system they want to see in their countries.This summit offers us a chance to express our points of view and discuss it with our government why we believe the current educational system is failing and how we want, in partnership with them and our teachers, to create a more productive forms of education which would actually create the entrepreneurs and change-makers, we need to make our continent more sustainable and innovative.
- Young activists, professionals, young entrepreneurs, representatives of NGOs, academics, and journalists are eligible for applying to be a part of the summit. The call is open to participants from around the world.
- Age Limit: 18 – 35 (Flexibility regarding the age limit will be decided on a case by case basis by the Organizing Committee)
- Command of English – You do not have to be a native English speaker, however, the IYSL is conducted in English so basic understanding or oral and written English is required.
- Fill in all the mandatory fields. Incomplete Forms will not be assessed by the Organizing Committee .
