ECOSOC Youth Forum SDG4 breakout breakout Session: Youth Engagement in Transforming Education
The SDG4 breakout session of the ECOSOC Youth Forum aims to highlight the role of youth engagement in enhancing the quality of formal and informal education. Existing youth-led solutions that transform education and their impacts on local, national, and regional communities will be showcased in this session. The skills and knowledge that young people need to effectively contribute to human rights, sustainable development, a culture of peace and non-violence, respect for diversity and global citizenship will be discussed, as well as challenges and opportunities to develop and deliver related educational programmes. Proposed strategies on how youth engagement can be strengthened to reshape formal and informal education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will be shared and discussed. Strategies to increase and improve youth advocacy for education financing and inclusive education will be shared.
The purpose of this segment is to reiterate the need to support and build upon existing youth-led solutions to improve the accessibility and equity of education and to accelerate progress on SDG 4.
Primary outcomes
Raise awareness about youth and student priorities to ensure that education systems are inclusive, future-proof, sustainable, safe, and backed by education policy, financing, and infrastructure
Raise awareness about existing youth-led solutions that are transforming informal and formal education
Discuss and propose strategies to strengthen youth engagement during planning processes, consultations, implementation, validation, and reviewing procedures relating to improving quality education
Secondary outcomes
Existing youth and student organisations and affiliations and youth-led solutions are provided opportunities to gain support through sustainable funding and resourcing
Youth and students are invited by member states in intergenerational dialogues to shape national education commitments
The virtual event will be structured as an interactive and intergenerational session, featuring UN, civil society, academia and government representatives. More particularly, youth representatives will answer questions prepared for the session and share experiences and lessons learned. The showcased examples of meaningful and successful youth actions will provide a set of good practices for possible replication and adaptation in other relevant contexts.