An annual event since the year 2000, this year’s edition of the University on Youth and Development gathered a total of 230 participants from civil society organisations, national governments and local and regional authorities coming from almost 58 different nationalities to exchange ideas and practices in an open dialogue around the flagship theme: ‘Developing Global Identities.
The participants that took part of this year’s edition increased their knowledge about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developed in a participatory way the concept of global identity and acquired more competences related to democracy and youth participation.
The 18th University on Youth and Development assembled a total of ten different activities run by different partners and funded by ether own resources or other entities such as Erasmus+ Programme, the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) or the Open Society Foundations.
Partners like the Spanish Institute for Youth (INJUVE), the Spanish Youth Council (CJE), the European Students’ Unions (ESU), the Organising Bureau of School Students’ Unions (OBESSU) or the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) organised activities that tackled issues related to “Building Inclusive Societies” on topics such as the integration of refugees, preventing radicalization and Hate Speech and empowering diverse identities, including gender and LGBT rights.
Other partners such as Portuguese Institute for Sports and Youth (IPDJ), Developing Youth Participation at the Local Level (DYPALL) Network and the Spanish Youth Council in partnership the Portuguese Youth Council (CNJ) and Latin American and Caribbean Youth Forum (FLACJ) built on topics related to youth participation and youth rights, from the global to the local level and with the aim to build bridges between the Mediterranean countries.
The UYD was also the perfect framework for the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe to implement two activities of its iLEGEND project: the 7th Global Education training course for youth multipliers and the Seminar Diaspora Youth as agents for inclusive societies.
This year’s counted with the high level representation of Spanish, Portuguese and Tunisian authorities and also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Centro Euro-Latino Americano de la Juventud (CEULAJ), government organization attached to the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality of the Spanish Government that in 2016 was awarded Quality Label for Youth Centres.
Unable to attend the event in Mollina, the Executive Director of the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, Ambassador Antonio Gamito, spoke to the participants via video-link from Lisbon stating, interalia his pride in the cooperation between organisations and communities that make the UYD, in particular its power to build bridges and dialogue among participants.
Once more, the 18th University on Youth and Development confirmed that the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, together with its quadrilogue partners and the many participants and guests, has a key role in contributing to strengthen youth cooperation.
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