Today, the North-South Centre is holding an online meeting with 40 participants with specific expertises in the Youth field, allowing exchange of insights, perspectives and information about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in their work, building synergies and foundations to maintain connectedness.
The meeting is designed for international entities, inter-governmental institutions and youth-led umbrella organisations at inter-regional level. Between the represented entities: the Council of Europe, the African Union, Anna Lindh Foundation, European Commission, League of Arab States, United Nations, Union for the Mediterranean, the Commonwealth, Asia-Europe Foundation, Global Coalition on Youth Peace and Security, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, European Youth Forum, African, Caribbean and Pacific Young Professionals Network, UNOY Peacebuilders, Pan-Africa Youth Union…
Different stakeholders from different regions of the world are then integrating a dynamic space for dialogue, peer-learning and partnership building, where inputs and initiatives are shared, commented and combined in an informal and interactive way. The participants have the possibility to share videos which explain the stories about the impact of COVID-19 in their entities. An extra space for networking is also provided for bilateral exchanges.
A series of discussions will be organised in three parts:
- Covid-19 and its impact on our agendas, methodologies and initiatives,
- Interregional cooperation: state-of-the-art and perspectives,
- Impact and outreach of youth multipliers
The final output relates to the identification of a common ground for future cooperation and a common message to preserve the centrality of youth policies and of the role of young people to build a strong multilevel global governance.
This meeting and the subsequent ones, are part of the Global Youth and have been adapted to the current situation to encourage and structure cooperation among international stakeholders.