Global Youth Forum 2020: Day 2
The last session of the first virtual Youth Forum day ended with a Brainstorming Session led by Mohamed Alyatem, a civil engineer doing his master's degree in political science, with great expertise in conflict and peace studies. An open, interactive workspace was created by preparing open questions to discuss in groups, where everyone’s opinion was valued and mattered.
The second day of the youth forum was introduced by Dr. Roberto Savio, Director of ECPD International Relations, prominent journalist and publisher of The Other News - Voices against the tide. Dr. Savio outlined that we are living in a time of transition, a time where globalization has become the main economic engine, where capitalism defines the new liberalism, and that it is time for us to rethink our neoliberal capitalist development model, due to its many negative outcomes. Globalization reinforces the gap between rich and poor.
We have to start treating our planet kindly and tackle global warming together. We have to join the fight against the climate crisis so that we can ensure a better planet for future generations. Peace is the absence of war, it brings values of how to create a world of common ground and mutuality. It is the basis of international relations, which is indispensable in our globalized world.
Dr. Venera Gudaci, Assistant Professor at ECPD, continued with her presentation about Challenges of the field of education during Covid-19 and the digitalization opportunities in developing countries. She outlined important issues in the Balkan area concerning inadequate educational materials at home since homeschooling became a new reality in 2020. Quality education is a fundamental human right and a necessity for everyone. Dr. Gudaci raised awareness of the disparities in the educational system in developing countries.
“Education is a foundation of just, equal, inclusive peaceful societies, and contributes directly and/or indirectly to all 16 Earth Charter Principles and 17 SDGs”.
In summary, she called to stop the transmission of the virus and reopen schools, to protect and invest in education, to build resilient educational systems for sustainable development, and to accelerate change in teaching methods. She empowered participants to be part of the Earth Charter community, endorsing it and making the Earth Charter values part of one’s daily life to ensure justice, inclusivity, innovation as well as sustainable progress.
The following presentation was by Silvia Pascual Fontanilles together with Adriana Chiva, two students of global communication management and members of the Blanquerna Observatory on Religion, Communication and Culture in Barcelona. Their inspirational talk approached Youth, Faith, and Leadership formation in Portugal and Spain. Since Covid-19 affected many areas of everyday life, Adriana and Silvia pointed to the challenges in religious celebrations due to quarantine. New initiatives emerged, with young people being part of their creation by implementing YouTube channels, Instagram live videos as well as using Zoom or other digital platforms for religious conferences.
Divya Sree Muppichetty, a social entrepreneur with a master's degree in public health, joined us from India with her contribution to Permaculture. She started with a definition of permaculture, what it is and how it works, by bringing out the 12 principles of permaculture. Permaculture is a more holistic approach to farming, creates a more sustainable and environmental-friendly agricultural design, focussing on whole systems thinking and simulating patterns from nature:
care for the earth, helping all life systems continue to exist and multiply
care for the people, allowing people to access resources they need to survive
fair share, only taking what one needs and reinvesting any surplus
Divya explained the main difference between organic farming and permaculture which lies in the energy cycle. “A farm is an energy source, whereas a permaculture site creates an energy loop”. She raised awareness in new ways of thinking and acting on agricultural systems, which continue generating high yields and maintaining a current level of productivity, being often even easier and just as profitable as conventional farming, due to the usage of the principles of permaculture “allowing nature to work for you, instead of trying to work against it”.
Christian Sanabria Gonzalez, a young student, and member of the Red Cross from Costa Rica took the chance at this year’s youth forum to talk about an eco-friendly lifestyle and why governments should take actions to preserve the environment. Climate change, due to massive emissions and cheap non-environmentally friendly production, challenges the planet. Christian outlined that people have to come together and treat challenges as a shared problem to find new ways of helping the planet. It is not only crucial to empower the government in taking action by implementing new laws, educating about these issues, to only take what is necessary from nature, but also to be personally involved.
Another highly topical issue was discussed by Aisosa Erhahon, a social scientist with great expertise in migration processes. She took the time to talk about the ongoing youth protests in Nigeria #EndSars, combining the spirit and values of the Earth Charter to raise awareness about this issue. Aisosa started with background information about Nigeria having the largest population of youth in the world with 202 million people. Ongoing challenges like lack of job opportunities, high poverty levels, regional inequality, as well as social and political unrest are big dilemmas in Nigeria. SARS is the acronym for the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigerian police force, intended to tackle issues of robbery, kidnapping and violent crimes. Although it should protect the people and tackle issues, crimes were committed by the force.
Prof. Dr. Tauno Kekäle, Co-Organiser of the Youth Forum, member of the ECPD Council, joined the Forum also on the second day not only as a participant but also as a speaker taking the time to say a few words about Youth-Industry-Municipality: Together for the future from Finland. With regard to what Federico Mayor had said on the first day of the youth forum in the inaugural session, Prof. Kekäle referred to his speech saying that everybody has a voice now, that participation is always possible and an indicator for people showing their existence through action and involvement. Prof. Kekäle addressed and motivated young people on how to use our voices and how to take leadership and action together by speaking up in our own cities, municipalities or political assemblies.
Maria Melnikova, an MBA student at ECPD who joined us from Moscow, created together with Prof. Mila G. Vukov, who is a mental health psychiatrist in California, a workshop about how to maintain positive thoughts during challenging times and how good is our hope for a better future. Maria introduced an important topic about self-care and how to manage stress by inaugurating a “self-care-model”.
Prof. Vukov continued with her workshop focusing on “goodness is our hope”. Starting with a definition of goodness, she further explained the difference between kindness and goodness:
“Goodness refers to the quality of being virtuous and morally good. The key difference between kindness and goodness is that kindness mainly involves being generous and considerate, and helping others whereas goodness involves righteousness in action or doing what is right”.
She made an important remark on how goodness is a great source for change. It can be implemented and improved through a secure environment for children, parents engaging their children in reasoning when children have done wrong, parents being role models in expressing elements of goodness: compassion, altruism, morality, justice. Also, change in the educational system can be developed when focusing on goodness and moral values, with teachers and professors mentoring these values. We need a supportive attitude in society in addressing, understanding and changing racism, ethnocentrism, gender inequality by comprehending and assimilating the importance of goodness for the whole society.
Closing session
At the end of the youth forum, participants were invited to reflect on the spirit of the days of the youth forum and think about how or if their expectations were met. The outcome was very positive as the Word-Cloud shows. The organizers also asked for overall feedback on the youth forum, and the results of the evaluation can be seen at the end of this report.
On behalf of the organizing team many thanks to everyone who took part in this year’s Youth Forum, participating, engaging in the workshops and discussions with people all around the world facing global issues, spreading awareness and finding potential solutions in creating a better world by being conscious of our universal responsibility, internalizing the principles of the Earth Charter for common and personal values.
Special thanks to Prof. Dahl, Prof. Lefkoff, Prof. Redekop, Mohamed Alyatem for supporting us and providing us with ideas, as well as helping us to organize the conference. We are deeply grateful for your efforts and commitment, that you always find the time to be involved with us.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the next Youth Forum on 23-24 October 2021, hopefully in person at the City Hall in Belgrade, Serbia. We would be more than happy to further connect and work with all of you on future projects. Please feel free to join our LinkedIn Group, to keep in touch and to create further important dialogues. To keep yourself updated you can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook for additional information.
With best wishes from the ECPD Management and Organizing Team of the 8th Global Youth Forum: Prof. Dr. Federico Mayor, President of the ECPD Council; Prof. Dr. Negoslav Ostojić, ECPD Executive Director; Prof. Dr. Arthur Dahl, Chairman; Hannah Wahler, Coordinator of the ECPD Youth Forum; Guglielmo Rezza, Team; Ingrid Hartmann, Full-time Intern at ECPD; Clara Umstätter, Team; Joseph Ngwarai, Team; Saskia Saliou, Team; Marco Boccaletti, Team.
The views and opinions expressed here belong to the author or interviewee and do not necessarily reflect those of The Youth Cafe.