Climate change continues to have a severe impact on people and communities around the world. It affects everyone, but the young generation will have to cope with the consequences for the longest time. It is crucial that they have an opportunity to express their views on this global challenge.
The Global Humanitarian Forum’s Youth Forum provides a platform to bring together young adults from multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary and multinational backgrounds to help solve humanitarian problems such as climate change in creative ways. The Youth Forum has an action-oriented and results-driven approach, placing the young generation with older adults to allow for a true intergenerational dialogue. It inspires young adults to see climate change as an opportunity and a challenge to develop innovative ideas.
The Youth Forum's objectives include:
- Unite young people from all over the world to develop new ideas and solutions to help solve humanitarian challenges
- Provide youth with a platform to express and share their views on humanitarian issues
- Engage the young generation in dialogue with older generations and decision makers of the world
Our second annual centerpiece event from 28 June - 1 July -- Youth Forum 2010, "Young Adults 4 New Results" -- will bring together 150 young adults for 4 days to engage in dialogue, brainstorming, inspiration, innovation and creation.
Youth Forum 2010 will focus on the topic “Generations taking on the climate challenge” and will be held in Geneva, Switzerland. It will be interlinked with the Global Humanitarian Forum’s annual high-level event, allowing for the young adults to engage in dialogue with leaders from government, business, civil society and international organizations. To get an idea of what Youth Forum 2009 was like, please see the report or go to our web site.
The entry competition and application process for Youth Forum 2010 are online until March 1, 2010. For more information please visit www.ghfyouthforum.org.
Aside from hosting an annual centerpiece event, the Global Humanitarian Forum’s Youth Forum offers other opportunities for young adults to learn and to express their views on the most pressing humanitarian challenges of today.
They are able to attend exclusive high-level conferences, such as the 10th Nobel Peace Laureates Summit and the Copenhagen Climate Summit. They can also engage in direct dialogue with older generations, such as the 2009 Road to Copenhagen Initiative in Malmo, Sweden, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Margot Wahlström and Mary Robinson. Here, civil society participated in the COP15 negotiations through an open debate, delivering recommendations to policy-makers.
The Youth Forum also provides opportunities for young adults to engage in activities of creative expression and personal development, such as the Altering Landscapes Workshop (right) at the 3rd World Climate Conference in Geneva.