Youth Declaration consultation process

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Youth Declaration consultation process

Transforming education can only be achieved if we, young people, are included in the processes of implementing policy and systematic changes to education stakeholders and governments. This is why youth must be engaged in critical events that will shape education’s future, such as the Transforming Education Summit (TES), which will take place in September 2022.

Developed by the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth together with the Summit Secretariat hosted by UNESCO and a number of partners, the Youth Declaration will:

  • gather young people’s collective views on what transforming education should look like
  • outline young people’s collective recommendations to decision and policymakers, including governments, civil society, international organizations, the United Nations, and others on transforming education
  • highlight young people’s collective commitments and actions towards transforming education

It will be presented to the Secretary-General as young people’s inputs to the Chair's Summary of the Transforming Education Summit. 

Young people all over the world are encouraged to shape and influence this crucial document.

Watch the introduction to the Youth Declaration by Jayathma Wickramanayake, United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth and SDG4Youth members Doris Mwikali and Sofia Bermudez at the Pre-Summit 28-30 June at UNESCO HQ Paris

Remote video URL

Process

The Declaration must hear from youth around the world with different backgrounds and contexts. To this end, several public consultations are taking place between June and September 2022. In addition, the Youth Declaration will take into account outcomes of past consultations and various calls to action and other resources that have been developed in relation to the Transforming Education Summit. An independent consultant will be responsible for bringing all these resources together and ensuring that young people in all their diversity and worldwide will be engaged in a meaningful, diverse, and effective manner throughout this process.

Desk review of key resources and consultations

The Youth Declaration will be informed by the following key consultations:

  • World Largest Lesson’s Transforming Education Survey (Transforming Education Survey | The World's Largest Lesson - globalgoals.org)
  • UNESCO’s “Three questions to Transform Education” Survey - the survey can be found on the Futures of Education website in English | French | Spanish
  • UNICEF U-Report poll calling on all young people to share their views on Transforming Education: Messenger https://bit.ly/TEducationFB | WhatsApp https://bit.ly/TEducationWA | Viber https://bit.ly/TEducationVR 

Other key resources include:

If you would like to submit key resources reflecting youth voices in transforming education for the Youth Declaration, please contact: tes.publicengagement@unesco.org

First Youth Declaration Consultation (in person)

During the Pre-Summit, a Youth Consultation in person was held on June 29th 2022. More than 70 young people from around the world participated and contributed their opinions, inputs and ideas.

Each group came up with inspiring ideas and bold petitions for governments to commit to education. The following takeaways can be highlighted: 

  • To ensure youth can keep track of the commitments made by governments to transform education,  an accountability mechanism must be established. This is critical to create structural changes and ensure countries put education on the agenda. 
  • Young people not only need to be heard by stakeholders and governments, but if we really want to achieve SDG4 and transform education, they also need to be included in the process and play an active role.
  • Any proposal, action, or change we want for education in any field demands more financing. Countries must commit to transforming education not only by words but by concrete actions and funding. Otherwise, we will never be able to create structural changes and ensure access to quality education for everyone.

As an outcome of the session, the rapporteurs presented a final report to the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. These reports will feed the final Youth Declaration.

Second and third Youth Declaration Consultations (online) & discussion forum board

During July and August, online consultations will be organized with the objective of allowing more young people to contribute to the Youth Declaration. A second online consultation was held on 19 July 2022.  

Register to participate in the third online consultation on the Youth Declaration that will take place on 12 August 2022 at 2:30 PM (Paris time) or/and share your views on the discussion forum page.  You will also find latest documents and discussions on the Youth Declaration discussion forum page. 

For any questions related to the Youth Declaration, please contact: tes.publicengagement@unesco.org