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Back Opening of the 21st edition of the UYD, what happened?

The opening session gathered young participants, partner organisations, and institutional representatives to build up a common ground around the values, the purpose and the topics of the 21st edition of the University on Youth and Development (UYD).

The teams, the programme and the specific activities were presented with a special focus on the annual theme “Building more effective, accountable and inclusive institutions”. It marked the start of a journey to collect different perspectives and experiences on how to increase youth participation in decision-making processes and on how to build pluralistic democracies.

The opening session created a space of dialogue and confidence building between young participants and institutional representatives at different levels:

"Institutions have the responsibility to include young people's energy in decision making"
H.E. Ambassador Lorenzo Vella, Chair of the Executive Committee of the North-South Centre, Permanent Representative of Malta to the Council of Europe.

"Women are still underrepresented in parliaments and positions of power. The UYD is a space of dialogue to change together the present and the future of women’s rights"
Hon. Joana Lima, Head of the Portuguese Delegation at Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM).

"Morocco has youth councils at local and regional levels that aim to raise awareness and promote youth participation in public debates, allowing them to provide feedback to public authorities"Secretary General of the Department of Youth, Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, Kingdom of Morocco.

"It is important to bring our communities to the rural areas and listen to young people’s needs to guarantee a comfortable life".
Mr James Moloney, Vice-Chair of the Current Affairs Committee and Rapporteur on rural youth at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

"Youth is an opportunity to re-do, re-think and repair.”
"Without intersectionality, it would be difficult to move forward and create more inclusive and fairer societies"
Mr Tabue Nguma, Head of the Social Sciences Sector, UNESCO Regional office of Dakar.

"We need a bigger support from institutions to youth civil society, so for them to become more inclusive"
Mr Tilemachos Boni, member of the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe.

"Thanks to the NSC for celebrating with us the 30 anniversary of the CEULAJ. The UYD is a big event for the CEULAJ, not only for the number of editions hosted, but for the values of intercultural dialogue and human rights that are also part of our identity."
José Ismael Criado, Director of CEULAJ.

While unpacking the annual theme exploring the different possibilities of youth participation in the public life, they all praised the different activities that will further expand the conversation around youth participation.

Composed by partners’ activities, joint programmes, workshops, trainings, and, for the first time, with an online dimension, the UYD this year will yet again act as a catalyst of ideas that will benefit youth empowerment in the world.

The media team of the UYD is working to produce content.
Discover the activities and meet the participants, follow us on social media :

Youth cooperation Programme :

Press release :

French, Spanish, English

Mollina, Spain 12/09/2022

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The Youth Cooperation Programme aims at increasing youth participation and international cooperation in the youth sector to build more peaceful societies and more inclusive decision-making processes.

The activities promoted fall under three complementary dimensions: youth empowerment, networking and confidence building.

The youth empowerment schemes target youth workers and youth-multipliers improving their capacity to identify and address challenges related to human rights, global citizenship, democratic participation, peace, development and intercultural dialogue.

The networking activities provide spaces and opportunities for youth-led organisations and youth-related institutions to meet, debate, share good practices and cooperate, fostering partnership and joint actions to advance the global youth agenda.

The confidence building initiatives facilitate a structured dialogue between youth leaders and institutional representatives, creating a common ground on youth policies based on an increased awareness about each other's roles, challenges and priorities.

The Council of Europe human-rights approach is at the center of all initiatives promoted, while the non-formal education methodology is greatly used, following a peer-to-peer and participants-centred approach.

The projects and the activities are developed in close cooperation with various youth stakeholders (international organisations, youth networks, youth-serving institutions, national youth institutes, national youth councils… ) with the objective of enhancing multilevel governance structures based on more coordinated and inclusive processes.
In this sense, the North South Centre acts as facilitator providing a common framework of cooperation and interaction, privileging the interregional dimension.