YOUth Save the Planet

What if I told you that youth will save the planet? Would you believe me?


The Road to Paris

Youth of the world have always been considered as key stakeholders in putting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into practice.

13 May 2018 witnessed the gathering of over 70 ESD youth leaders who were selected from 300 other youth who have previously participated in the regional workshops representing 93 different countries of the world. The conference "Youth Save the Planet" was introduced as a follow-up to regional workshops that were held under the banner of building youth capacity on Education for Sustainable Development.

The main objectives of the conference included but were not limited to:

 1.Agree on a network platform for ESD Youth Leaders to facilitate collaboration and to continue scaling up of capacity-building activities.
2.Engage ESD Youth Leaders and young journalists to increase visibility on ESD actions through media and communication outlets.
3.Provide input to the draft position paper on the future direction of ESD.

Coming from the regional workshop that gathered youth of the Arab world countries or Arab-speaking countries, I was privileged to be given the space and the platform to contribute to the dialogue around ESD.

However, my experience getting to Paris was a bit different this time.

                               

Just like another platform I was given to represent the youth of my network and region in, I had high expectations and excitement of the output of the conference held by UNESCO this time.


Arriving in Paris Orly airport, however, brought me back to reality. My green passport, once again, was very attractive to the eyes of the airport's police, to the point of randomly selecting me for a thorough and an hour-long questionnaire. Bad cop-good cop strategies, awkward eye-contact, and Whys and Hows. The longer the time I have spent in that corner waiting for my passport, the deeper my reflection on this situation got. Writing a Facebook status about what I was going through, I was also informed that more than 2 of our peers were denied the visa to attend the conference.

It felt like the rejections and the fear of what our identity and background can bring to developed countries like France is more and more normalized and justified. It felt like all of the hope we are trying to preach and practise with those who have lost is shattering with such discriminatory acts. For African, Arab, and minority groups, the struggle goes beyond enrooting ESD and SDG strategies. It also goes to the fact of getting our voice delivered in major platforms happening around the world without restrictions nor appropriation.

At the end of the day, I have finally made it to Paris, but I wonder how many voices haven't...


ESD

As the world continues to mobilize around ESD, youth leaders including teachers, communicators, journalists, and mentors are adopting a holistic and cross-sector framework to make ESD understood, adopted, and mainstreamed in our curriculums and practices. This participatory approach was widely demonstrated in numerous initiatives introduced in the conference, proving that the world is walking in steady steps towards collaborating from new sustainable horizons. However, are the continuous efforts by those youth multipliers enough to meet the 2030 promise of shifting the world towards an inclusive sustainable and resilient path?

Almost everyone in the conference would scream, absolutely!

I would be honest with you, I would never mention SDGs for someone who comes from a remote area that is subject to daily marginalization and exclusion from being part of such ambitious frameworks.

But, giving it a thought, imagine if each one of us really understood and spread the word with only 10 people of our communities around practices to free the people and the planet from these 17 burdens.

Imagine if we all acted upon a sense of urgency to translate what's written on papers to our own local contexts. Imagine if we were all granted the equal access to opportunities by the most privileged amongst us. It is absolutely empowering what we can do to each other.

But do you know what is far more empowering? It is when we uplift each other to reach a degree of awareness to hold our governments and policy-makers accountable for

5 regions of the world had their own say about stimulating action around ESD, and the results shall not go unseen.


Youth Save the Planet

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

 - Margaret Mead - 

When talking about youth in the change-making process, it is common to hear that youth are the leaders of tomorrow. However, what the 70 young leaders have contributed during the Youth Save the Planet conference went beyond seeking recognition as leaders of the future. 

Because simply put, they proved that they are leading, innovating, and maintaining their efforts to solve the challenges of the present.

During the conference, there were different proposals for follow up strategies to work on monitoring and reviewing the progress of GAP 4 Partners in empowering and mobilizing youth to take actions on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). 


Regional teams will hopefully now have the opportunity, network, and international society recognition to develop partnerships around the presented short and long-term frameworks.


Will this be enough to implement these promises? Qui vivra, verra.