The project “Youth access to rights through implementing the SDGs”- YouthSDGs” aims to develop capacities of youth leaders and youth lead organizations to improve young people’s access to rights through the Sustainable development goals (SDG) implementation plans. As a result of the project, there will be an improved capacity of youth organisations to engage for access to rights in the SDG related reforms and advocate for active youth involvement in the SDG process. This project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.
The project is established on developing the advocacy capacities of youth organizations and young people to advocate for their access to rights within the SDGs implementation process. It is intended as a long-term process providing youth engagement and sharing activities, including two youth exchanges in Fiji and Kenya, joint seminar in Italy and webinar and a youth worker mobility to Brussels, Belgium to learn from local, national and global initiatives. It involves 11 partners from Europe, Africa, South America, Central Asia and the Pacific, in a truly global intercultural learning environment.
The project results will be noticeable in the capacity of youth organisations to work on access to rights for young people in the SDG framework. Some of the results are: awareness and new skills on advocacy for access to rights, the mapping and policy brief papers produced by young people and the engagement of the young people globally to promote the SDGs.
Project activities:
- Consultative seminar on Youth Access to Rights and SDGs will explore the existing policy and practice overlaps between youth access to rights and the SDG implementation plans. Youth and civil society leaders will be participants and will present different ideas and approaches for ensuring youth rights-based approach as a mapping. The activity will produce a mapping synoptic report where each youth rights are linked with an SDG and obstacles are identified as well.
- Youth exchange – “Youth and SDGs” in Nadi, Fiji. On the activity young people from Europe will have a direct chance to engage with the Pacific civil society working on SDGs and in prevention of climate change. This will also serve as a motivating factor to understand better the SDGs, and to see how some people are more directly unequally hit by injustice, but also how they advocate and fight for their rights. The youth exchange will also aim to introduce the SDGs and develop short videos on the role of young people in their implementation and also how through the SDGs young people can access their rights. The exchange groups will have 6 young people accompanied by 2 group leaders.
- Youth exchange – “Youth access to rights” in Mombasa, Kenya. The youth exchange will last for 7 working days and will engage young people to better understand what access to rights is, how rights based approach came about and which Human Rights are connected with the SDGs. The exchange will also introduce the topic of intersectionality and the young people will explore it through the multicultural society in Kenya and make parallels to their home societies.
- Individual youth workers mobilities in a form of a 2 months job shadowing, would allow some partner organizations to provide space for true capacity building of their young leaders by asking them to work in another organisations’ work context. The youth leader will have a hands-on experience, getting involved in the necessary learning tasks and really understand better how to advocate on young people’s access to rights. Youth leaders from Fiji, Brazil and North Macedonia will be hosted in different partner organisations to exchange expertise.
- Conclusions Webinar aims atshowcasing the findings and promoting the active engagement of youth through an access to rights approach in the SDGs implementation plans. This webinar will be an online Idea Lab aiming to conclude functional ideas for meaningful access to rights and link those with the SDGs.
Project Outputs:
1. Developed mapping of the overlaps between youth access to rights and the SDGs especially to be used in advocacy efforts
2. The contributions from the seminar and webinar will be published to support the multiplication of project results, and big outreach on more civil society organizations on a global level. The contributions will be composed of examples, speeches and outcomes from small group work and will be available on English.
3.Individual youth leaders mobilities will increase capacity of youth leaders to advocate for removal of the barriers for young people to access their rights. It will also increase their project management skills and understanding of the different UN and EU bodies in charge of the SDGs and using rights-based approach.
4.Community of Practice: The project will develop global community of practice, with specific skills to support Youth Access to Rights when working on the SDG implementation, in their respective fields.
Aims and objectives:
The project aim is to develop capacities of youth leaders and youth lead organizations to improve young people’s access to rights through the Sustainable development goals (SDG) implementation plans.
As a result of the project, there will be an improved capacity of youth organisations to engage for access to rights in the SDG related reforms and advocate for active youth involvement in the SDG process.
Specific objectives of the project are to:
(1) Build capacity of the young leaders to engage in advocacy for SDGs implementation using the access to rights approach
(2) Foster the knowledge and competences of leaders to address youth access to rights and remove the barriers that young people are facing in their access to rights;
(3) Provide participants with the theory and tools necessary to design, implement and evaluate effective rights based approach, especially in the development agenda;
(4) Empower youth leaders and develop capacity of youth organizations to engage young people with fewer opportunities in advocating for their access to rights;
(5) Strengthen the collaboration between youth organizations from different regions of the world and develop a community of practice with a common understanding of the topic
These objectives are set to strengthen capacity of youth organisations to promote the rights-based dimension of the SDGs and encompass all its aspects within their work and work of other organisatons on national, regional and global level. The project will prepare a group of youth leaders to become multipliers and drivers for change in their society, by using an already existing global development agenda and securing that young people will not be left out of it. Through the acquired skills, they will be able to design activities that promote active citizenship, tolerance and respect for the rule of law, thus contributing to improving the local realities from an international perspective.
The project is directly involving youth leaders worldwide who are willing to become active in encouraging Youth Access to Rights. We believe this target group can be the best multipliers, and that they have the passion and are in position to continue the discussion and action through their work with young people.
The project is based on the principle of learning by doing, being designed in a logical flow that ensures participatory learning and development. It will involve youth leaders with international experience, but also will be an example of involving young people through the youth exchanges. In addition, local experts will be invited to provide input and share good practices in the topic.
Holding the events globally, will secure that the framework of Agenda 2030 and the Leave No-one Behind commitment is central to the project delivery. It affords the young people a unique opportunity to better understand the context of those on the frontlines of climate change, while also bridging local and regional efforts to key intergovernmental and multilateral engagements on climate change, including the UN Oceans Conference in New York and the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25).