Menu Version for the visually impaired

8th ECOSOC Youth Forum completed its work

15.04.2019
In New York, the 8th ECOSOC Youth Forum completed its work. This year, the theme of the meeting was formulated as “Youth: Empowered, Included and Equal”. Special focus was placed on the Sustainable Development Goals: 4 (Quality Education), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 10 (Reduced Inequalities), 13 (Climate Action), 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), 17 (Partnership for the Goals), as well as on discussion of the various Agenda 2030 implementation methods. The youth associations of our country were represented at the event by a delegation, composed of the National Youth Council of Russia member organizations’ leaders (NYCR is an association that has consultative status with ECOSOC). Within the framework of the forum, they held two side events “Access of youth to social rights: the role of youth NGOs and international institutions” and “Remembrance and learning from World War II”. On April 8, the side event “Remembrance and learning from World War II” took place at the forum. The purpose of the event was to attract the attention of youth from different countries to the problem of preserving historical memory and of importance of contribution to forming a common and deeper understanding of the causes, consequences and lessons learned from this terrible tragedy, in order to maintain peace and security, as well as to take effective collective measures to prevent and eliminate threats to peace. Discussion of this topic at the UN site has become particularly relevant in the context of the upcoming 75th anniversary, in 2020, of the World War II End. As part of the side event, the participants considered the possibility of implementing a set of youth activities in different countries dedicated to this event. On April 9, «on the margins» of the forum, the side event “Access of youth to social rights: the role of youth NGOs and international institutions”, organized by the National Youth Council of Russia, took place. The event became a platform for studying the role of youth non-governmental organizations in the work on ensuring youth access to social rights, and also facilitated the exchange of information on approaches, through cooperation between youth workers, non-governmental organizations, national governments, local governments and international institutions aimed at promoting of youth social integration. One of the outcomes of this meeting was the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between the National Youth Council of Russia and the Brazilian Social Development Agency «Besouro». The document is aimed at developing cooperation in the field of youth social entrepreneurship. Let us remind that since 2012, the ECOSOC Forum has been an effective platform for joint work of “youth” ministries and departments leaders on creation of the special tools for achieving sustainable development goals, and has been also providing a unique opportunity for young people to express their opinions at the UN Headquarters, exchange ideas and think together how youth representatives can contribute to achieving these goals.