CRI, UNESCO, The Youth Cafe, and +150 Partners Hosted A Global Online Festival For International Day Of Education

The Youth Cafe has been honored to be part of a global online festival for the International Day of Education hosted by LearningPlanet. In a time when schools, universities, and youth are so deeply affected by the pandemic, the #LearningPlanet Festival provided a timely opportunity to celebrate education as a powerful way to collectively move forward.

Organized in partnership with UNESCO and other leading organizations across the world, the Festival was an annual rendez-vous to inspire and empower learners of all ages to take action towards a better future. This year specifically, the Festival aimed to contribute to reversing today's dreary narrative under the theme ​Learning to take care of Oneself, Others, and the Planet​. In challenging times indeed, there is an urge to collectively celebrate the seeds of hope, resilience, collaboration, optimism, well-being, and confident momentum towards a healthier tomorrow.

The Youth Cafe had an opportunity to showcase the organization, particularly on our education and skills work. The organization is working towards increasing the creation of opportunities for young people to develop employability skills and competencies to take on future challenges and opportunities in the society “21st-century skills” or soft skills like critical thinking, communication skills, and adaptability.

The #LearningPlanet Festival 2021 edition, free and open for all, took place online on January 24-25, gathering over 250 speakers from more than 500 exemplary educational organizations from around the world, for more than 80 enriching sessions. The Festival provided a platform to update close to 2,000 registered attendees on solutions addressing today's burning challenges in education: collective intelligence and action, education for sustainability, children's health, youth rights and agency, new leadership models, future literacies as well as art, science and technology in education. These themes are at the core of #LearningPlanet's vision of meaningful learning towards solving our most complex collective challenges.

Throughout 48 hours and five thematic tracks, the Festival shed light on inspiring organizations, ideas, and solutions that deserve to be shared and implemented at scale through a series of expert sessions, community activities, launch announcements, and educational workshops. On Monday 25th January, the Festival notably included a conference organized by UNESCO under the theme 'Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation' which aimed to celebrate education's resilience and COVID-19 education heroes. The event also hosted the award ceremony of the "Conversation with The Little Prince' writing contest and rewarded six laureates who had submitted outstanding creative pieces in six different languages.  

Overall, the global festival welcomed, alongside engaged youth and educators, leaders of renowned organizations such as ​AIME Mentoring Ashoka, AUF, BBC Action Media, Campus AFD, Climate-KIC, Club of Rome, Community Arts Network, CRI, Designathon, Design for Change, DreamADream, EdTech France, European Student Union, Exaptive, Global Education Futures, Global Education Leaders Partnership, Global Entrepreneurship Network, Global Minnesota, IRD, Kabakoo Academies, Kruzhok Movement, Learning Creates Australia, Leonardo, Maison de l'Apprendre, MasterPeace, Museums for the UN, OECD, Reboot the Future, UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, War Childhood Museum, The Weaving Lab, Weizmann Institute of Science, WHO-UNICEF-The Lancet Commission, WISE, World's Largest Lesson, Y-East, The World Youth Alliance, The Youth Cafe, and many more.  

Watch all the Festival's sessions on #LearningPlanet Youtube Channel.

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