News

The 3rd Youth Leadership Workshop on GCED was held from 28 May to 3 June 2017 in Jeju, Republic of Korea. During this workshop, 50 youth leaders/activists from 42 countries participated in various forms of programmes, including plenary sessions on GCED, workshops for Youth Advocacy and study visits to understand GCED local initiative.

Facilitated by APCEIU and core members of GCED Youth Network, this workshop was a forum for participants to actively share and engage with each other based on their local youth activities. Starting with the sessions on ‘Introduction of GCED’ by Director CHUNG Utak and Office of Education and Training, various workshops under the main theme of “Deepening the Understanding of GCED Advocacy” were held. 

For the session of “Youth Inspirational Speakers on GCED” by GCED Youth Network, youth leaders took part in various interactive exercises to understand GCED through sharing their own GCED activities and ultimately respect the difference of each other through GCED. Following this, participants had a session to ponder over the advocacy in GCED and its implementation strategies during the group activities. As a part of the session, “GCED Advocacy”, which was led by the GCED Youth Network introduced Youth Advocacy Toolkit and internalised advocacy strategies to efficiently implement GCED as a youth leader. 

In order to explore the local initiatives and develop a strategic planning for GCED, the youth activists participated in study visits to two different places in Jeju. Participants chose one of the options to experience and deepen their understandings of local initiatives on GCED based on the following themes: 

1) “Understanding GCED Local Initiatives” - Global Inner Peace, A Civil Society Organization on Global Issues; 2) “Creative Ways for the Sustainable Future” - Jaejudo Joa, A Cultural Group for Sustainable Marine Ecosystem through Beachcombing.

By exploring GCED in local settings, the youth leaders had a priceless opportunity to relate their own experience with the different areas of Jeju to find methods to implement GCED in their home countries and share their activities on social media. After the study visit, participants gathered at Ttarabi Oreum and participated in the Peace Campaign by writing peace messages and flying kites.

On June 1, the participants in six groups presented their outcomes to promote GCED by different thematic issues followed by action plans on specific topics: 

1) Human Rights - Sexual Human Trafficking, 2) Leadership Development - Social Entrepreneurship, 3) Peace & Conflict - Act for Tolerance, 4) Cross-Cultural Understanding - Dialogue for Peace 5) Environmental Sustainability - Design a Sustainable Future with Comunidade da Mare 6) Gender Equality - Sanitary Pad, Right for Every Girl. 

Each group gave a speech on the above topics, composed of the background, target group, plans/timeline, method, evaluation/monitoring and organisational approach. To find the solutions to each issue, youth leaders had discussions to share their ideas and come up with group outcomes which are to be implemented and reproduced after the workshop as follow-up activities.

On the last day, the youth activists participated in a session on “The Role of Youth and Culture in Shaping a Peaceful and Sustainable Future” in Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity. In this session organised by APCEIU and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, two of the Workshop participants shared their youth and culture activities representing youth leaders across the globe as panelists. Her Excellency Puan Maharani, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture of Indonesia, His Excellency Hamat Bah, Minister for Tourism and Culture of The Gambia, Mr. Eduardo Mendez, Executive Director of Simon Bolivar Music Foundation in Venezuela and Mr. Daniel Lindemann, TV personality in Korea from Germany Culture also joined the session as panelists. 

At the closing ceremony, Director Gwangjo KIM from UNESCO Bangkok commented that “It is important to take actions as global leaders and bring the issues forward to implement GCED in your own community.” Director CHUNG concluded this workshop by saying that “It is surely expected that the outcome of workshop will be implemented in your programmes of diverse regions and APCEIU will continuously support youth activities through GCED Youth Network.”

URL:

A Global Forum for Youth Leaders to Share Initiatives on GCED > APCEIU News - APCEIU (unescoapceiu.org)