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International Youth Cooperation for Sustainability
International Youth Cooperation for Sustainability
Start date: Nov 1, 2010,
International Youth Cooperation for Sustainability is a large-scale project which will bring together 60 young people from 6 countries of Europe and Africa. The project aims to raise awareness among young people about sustainable development and respect to our environment as pressing global challenges as well as to promote Euro-African dialogue, exchange and co-operation in the field of youth.Young people in France, Italy, Estonia, Senegal,,-Ëénin and Burkina Faso will form local project groupsthat will meet regularly throughout 12 months and organise various activities. Most of the participants willbe young people with fewer opportunities and they wijl be empowered to become young "developmentleaders" in their local communities. , o.The Kick-off seminar in Burkina Faso will bring together youth workers from the partner organisations to train them about sustainable development and provide them with specific methodology. The 16-days-long international Training Course and Study Visit in Benin will enable 18 young people to be trained in permaculture as a recognized concept of sustainable development, exchange their experience and opinions with other young people and visit successful projects and organisations in Benin. Participants will reflect about links between sustainable development and other global challenges as well as about environmental problems causing poverty and social exclusion. After they come back home, they and the local project groups will organise multiplication trainings in their local communities. Second international Training Course and Study Visit will take place for 12 days in Senegal. Another 18 young people will be trained in NGO and project management, fundraising, will discuss and reflect about youth participation and the role young people can play in promoting sustainable development. The local project groups will implement second stage of local activities, including exhibitions, presentations, discussions, active workshops, etc.The results of the project and the local activities wil be presented and evaluated by young people themselves at the Evaluation and Follow-up Seminar in France. An evaluation conference will be part of the seminar and will present the results to policy-makers, youth workers and media. All the international activities will be an opportunity for intercultural exchange between young Europeans and Africans and will promote cultural diversity. After the project, the 60 young participants will be encouraged to get involved in the non-profit sector, start their own projects or even NGOs and valorise their new competences. This will promote youth participation and also increase the employability of the participants.The local activities during the project will reach around 1260 young people and encourage them to lead more sustainable lifestyle. During the international activities, we will organise a number of press conferences, public presentations^ visits and meetings which will enable exchange of experience and good practices as well as networking and capacity-building of European and African youth NGOs. One of the results of the project should be a strong network of youth organisations and follow-up projects bringing together young people from Europe and Africa.Regular newsletters about the project and its results will be disseminated to a database of 900 youth policy experts, policy-makers, youth workers and other stakeholders from Europe and Africa. An Internet portal will be created to serve as a platform for exchange between young people and youth policy professionals in Europe and Africa. A publication about sustainable development for young people, including examples of good practice from the project, will be printed and widely disseminated in Europe and Africa.